Free Republic

In his State of the Union address on January 31, 2006, President Bush declared that “America is addicted to oil” and announced a new “Advanced Energy Initiative” to increase funding for research into renewable, homegrown, alternative energy sources to power our nation. One key element of the proposal is to fund “additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn, but from wood chips and stalks, or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years.” This announcement came on the heels of the Energy Policy Act of...

It began benignly enough as an assignment for the 15 freshmen in Tad Patzek's UC Berkeley college seminar class. But it soon mushroomed into something much larger. Patzek found himself in the national spotlight as his scientific paper published in June touched raw nerves throughout the nation's energy and farm industries. Gas prices were climbing higher; Congress was in the midst of drafting an energy policy; and the article criticized one possible solution -- making ethanol fuel from corn.Hundreds of newspapers wrote about the publication. E-mails flooded Patzek's in-box. People yelled at him over the phone. He was invited to...