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You bet they know that they are diverting corn to be burned as a very inefficient fuel away from food production in the face of a looming world wide food shortage.

Two things here:

1. Nobody is “diverting corn” here. Ethanol is already a component of gasoline in the U.S. today. All they’re doing is allowing it to be used through the entire year instead of eliminating it during the summer months.

2. This has nothing to do with the components of gasoline and everything to do with minimizing supply chain disruptions. Using different blends of gasoline at different times of the year is an enormous pain in the ass … which is why President Trump tried to do this exact same thing in 2019.

I understand everything you are saying and even agree. Regardless, the net effect will be significantly increased use of corn derived ethanol in motor fuels for the foreseeable future. This at time when there are threats of a looming world wide food shortage and increasingly severe inflation. More corn burned for ethanol means less corn available for people to eat or for feed for livestock which is inflationary. Higher demand for ethanol for fuel will also be inflationary and rise price of corn. Biden careens from one bad policy disaster to another. Declare total war on the oil industry and drive petroleum prices to the moon. This was already driving inflation and jeopardizing food production due to price hikes and supply limits on oil based fertilizers when it gave Putin huge leverage to invade Ukraine. Now we are seeing the negative effects of that policy in Russia using energy production and fertilizer as a weapon . Add in the potential loss of Ukrainian and Russian food exports due to war and we have multiple, serious Biden manufactured crisis on the near term horizon and Biden keeps manufacturing more crisis in ill considered and counterproductive efforts to mitigate the effects of the disasters he has already created. All of this is overlaid on the world wide structural problems and economic dislocations created by the 3 year covid mismanagement disaster and an already looming food shortage due record crop disruptions and crappy weather world wide. Add in a nuclear armed Russia having a tough military day at war in Ukraine, some really weird chit going down with expanding lock downs Shanghai, the financial and shipping (read supply chain) hub of the Chinese economy , and the fact that we have panicked Democrats trying to save their positions in an election year at all costs so nothing rational or productive will get done and we are facing a perfect storm for a disastrous 2023. All due to Team Biden