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Wayne--<br>
<br>
...precamur ut ... non loquaris nobis vulgate audiente populo qui
est super murum... because they won't understand either the language
or the sentiment.<br>
<br>
But this seems to me quite important, even as the political economy
of fossil fuels is misrepresented by both business parties in
support of US imperial crimes in the Mideast: "We must end US
dependency on Mideast oil" so misrepresents the situation that it's
not even wrong.<br>
<br>
I'm not normally a fan of the Manhattan Institute, but long ago on
"News From Neptune" we coined The Incompleteness Principle, which
states, "No one can be wrong all the time!" I'm very much afraid
that Mr. Bryce is right in this case. --CGE<br>
<br>
<br>
PS-the awful Chambliss is the bff of our awful fake liberal senator
Durbin, and they're up to some serious no-good, viz. & to wit:<br>
<br>
'SLASH MOB: WARNER/CHAMBLISS/DURBIN GETTING SERIOUS - Mark Warner
and Saxby Chambliss are merging their bipartisan group of 20-or-so
senators with a gang that other senators are calling "the
D-triple-C": Durbin, Conrad, Crapo and Coburn, the four senators who
voted for the deficit panel's recommendations (and are still here).
None of them think they'll have a plan ready by the time the CR
expires, but Warner says folks'll be surprised at how much support
they have. <br>
<br>
'Democracy For America has been pressing Durbin not to agree to cuts
to Social Security or other entitlements, which led to a meeting
between group members and a Durbin staffer in Illinois. Before the
meeting, the staffer pulled the organizer, Dr. Pamella Gronemeyer,
aside and said, "Don't worry, it won't affect you," referring to
possible cuts to Social Security ... "I was taken aback. I'm not
talking about myself. I'm talking about my kid and other people's
kids," she said. "I don't care if it affects me. That's not how I
make my decisions. It's not about me. It's the right thing to do.
Anybody whose parents lived through the depression knows what it can
be like."'<br>
<br>
<br>
On 2/19/11 2:55 AM, E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4D5F8568.1080503@pigs.ag" type="cite">
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<p>The consumption of corn starches and seed oils as automotive
fuels
is thermodynamically/entropically stupid, and economically
unsound, as
well as unethical. Of course it is strategically wise in the
minds of
the evil hegemons who rule the US of A to starve out others as a
means
of more and more power.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
The Ethanol industry is driven by politics and some of the most
unethical xomboid human shells on the planet are ramrodding it,
such as
the "leadership" of the US Corn Growers Association and geniuses
like
Saxby Chambliss. Like Ted
Geisel's Once-ler, they have no intent for their positive
feedback loop
except biggering, and Biggering, and BIGGERING. Damn the young
barbaloots in their barbaloot suits. Who cares about crummies
in the
tummies? The automobiles of the world
demand ethanol and their owners have the money to buy the
ethanol that
everyone, everyone, Everyone needs. This buggery of biggering
is
backed by billions of bucks provided on the backs of the people,
and by
that buffoon Bernanke's infinite printing press and for the
benefit of
Obot's bankster buddies. They say that Ethanol is good for the
environment, building lie upon lie. Babel's bricks are mortared
with
slime indeed.<br>
</p>
<p>*<br>
<img alt="" src="cid:part1.08020006.04000700@illinois.edu"
height="241" width="307"><br>
</p>
<p>*</p>
"ad viros qui sedent super murum ut comedant stercora sua et
bibant
urinam suam vobiscum"<br>
<br>
<p><u>Madness of Biofuels --</u></p>
<p>Last month, Peter Brabeck, the chairman of the Swiss food giant
Nestle,
declared that using food crops to make biofuels was "absolute
madness."</p>
<p>The epicenter of that madness is the U.S. corn-ethanol sector.
This
year, it will consume 40 percent of all U.S. corn - that's about
15
percent of global corn production or 5 percent of all global
grain - in
order to produce a volume of motor fuel with the energy
equivalent of
about 0.6 percent of global oil needs.</p>
<p>Congress lavishes about $7 billion in annual subsidies,
mandates and
tariff protections upon an industry that is helping push global
food
prices to all-time highs and shrink grain reserves at the very
same
time that global grain production is faltering and protests over
food
prices are becoming common.</p>
<p>The quantity of grain to be consumed this year for ethanol
production - 4.9 billion bushels - boggles the mind. That's more
than
twice as much as all the corn produced in Brazil and more than
six
times as much as is grown in India. Put another way, that's more
corn
than the output of the European Union, Mexico, Argentina and
India
combined.</p>
<p>Despite these facts, President Obama said last month in his
State of
the Union speech, "We can break our dependence on oil with
biofuels."
Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, who is
considering a run for the 2012 Republican presidential
nomination, was
in Iowa recently, cravenly wooing the ethanol producers and
slamming
"big city" critics of the ethanol industry. Alas, there's little
reason
to expect much bravery out of Mr. Gingrich's fellow Republicans
on
Capitol Hill. Current Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican,
recently told reporters not to expect cuts to the ethanol
subsidies
because they are "not in the discretionary spending pot."</p>
<p>While Mr. Obama prevaricates and Congress dithers, ethanol
boosters
are once again claiming that their sector has negligible effect
on
grain prices. However, the events of the past few weeks - corn
futures
at near-record highs and social unrest related to food prices -
are
nearly identical to the mayhem that occurred in 2007 and 2008.
Back
then, more than a dozen studies, including ones by Purdue
University,
the World Bank and the Congressional Research Service, exposed
the link
between increasing ethanol production and higher food prices.
Soaring
food prices led to violent protests in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory
Coast,
Haiti, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Philippines and
Indonesia.
Worries about adequate food stocks led several countries to ban
food
exports.</p>
<p>In May 2008, the Rand Corp. warned that diverting corn to the
ethanol sector was not only bad economics, but a security
threat:
"Using corn for ethanol is economically inefficient and has
harmed U.S.
national security. Diverting corn from food to ethanol
production has
pushed up world market prices for grains and other foods, which,
in
2008, resulted in riots in a number of developing countries."</p>
<p>In recent weeks, we've seen food price increases and protests
that
are reminiscent of 2008. There have been food riots in Algeria
and
Mozambique. Last month, about 8,000 Jordanians protested in the
streets
of Amman and other cities over rising food prices. In Egypt, the
world's biggest wheat importer, wheat prices are up by 30
percent over
the past 12 months. Those higher wheat prices are being stoked
by
rising corn prices, which have doubled over the past six months
and are
at about $7 per bushel. "Higher corn prices always means higher
wheat
prices," says Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic
Solutions, an
Omaha-based commodity consulting firm.</p>
<p>In December, a study by two U.S. agriculture economists, Thomas
Elam
and Steve Meyer, found that corn prices are being directly
stoked by
demand from the ethanol sector. Mr. Elam and Mr. Meyer, who have
done
consulting work for the meat industry, found that without the
ethanol
mandates, the average price of corn would be lower by more than
$2 per
bushel. They also conclude that "biofuels policy has caused
significant
cost increases for all users of feedgrains."</p>
<p>David Orden, a senior research fellow at the International Food
Policy Research Institute in Washington, told me that surging
corn
prices are "a continuation of what happened in 2008." The push
for
biofuels, he said, "has clearly tightened up agricultural
commodity
markets. That's good for farmers, but it is not good for poor
people
around the world."</p>
<p>Many of those poor live in the United States. Some 43.6 million
Americans, about 14 percent of the population, are receiving
federal
food stamps. Since October 2008, the number of Americans relying
on
food stamps jumped by 41.5 percent, and enrollment in the
program has
increased for 26 consecutive months. And thanks to the ethanol
scam,
those many millions are being priced out of the meat aisle. Over
the
past year, beef prices have risen more than 6 percent, and pork
prices
are up 11 percent. Economists are expecting overall grocery
prices in
the United States to rise by about 5 percent this year.</p>
<p>But the real - and likely more dangerous - food-price increases
will
happen outside of this country. Last year, the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development projected that global grain
prices
are likely to be as much as 40 percent higher by 2020, and a
London-based nonprofit entity, ActionAid, predicted that some
600
million more people could be left hungry by 2020 because of
increased
production of biofuels.</p>
<p>Mr. Brabeck, the chairman of Nestle, the world's biggest food
company, has rightly put the spotlight on the biofuels madness.
As the
head of a company with $100 billion in annual food-related
revenues,
Mr. Brabeck clearly has a keen understanding of the global food
industry. And last month during the World Economic Forum in
Davos,
Switzerland, he identified the stunningly obvious solution to
the
ongoing insanity. "No food for fuel," he said.</p>
<p>It's time - no, it's long past time - to heed Mr. Brabeck's
advice.
"No food for fuel" should be the mantra on Capitol Hill and at
the
United Nations. In addition, it should be a required oath for
all of
the candidates (Mr. Gingrich in particular) who are planning to
campaign in Iowa for the 2012 presidential election.</p>
<p>Stop the madness.</p>
<p><em>Robert Bryce is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
His
latest book is "Power Hungry: The Myths of 'Green' Energy and
the Real
Fuels of the Future" (PublicAffairs, 2010).</em></p>
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