November 15, 2013

The High Cost of Ethanol

The Associated Press issued a damning report on the negative effects of ethanol. Green lobby hardest hit.

One advantage for Iowa in being first on the presidential calendar is that candidates get an earful of talk on rural and agricultural issues. This, among other reasons, is why we have ethanol mandates.

Unfortunately, the “clean, green” energy that promised to eventually wean us off our dependence on foreign oil has turned out to be neither clean nor green. According to a lengthy Associated Press report on the subject, for example, over 1.2 million acres of formerly pristine prairie in Nebraska and the Dakotas have been plowed under for cornfields. Farmers are now eschewing modest conservation payments in favor of chasing a corn market where prices top $7 a bushel, leaving observers to bemoan the “raping [of] the land” and the “ecological disaster” ethanol has created.

With all that new acreage in mainly marginal land being used for crops, additional supplies of nitrogen-rich fertilizer are required. While it helps boost corn yields to some extent, the fertilizer that leaches away from the fields makes its way to local streams that eventually wind their way to the Gulf of Mexico, contributing to an expanding “dead zone” in that body of water. It’s also affected water supplies downstream, with the city of Des Moines, Iowa, asking consumers to curtail their water usage this past summer because of excess nitrogen in two local rivers that supply the city.

Yet the EPA, which first mandated the usage of ethanol as a fuel in 2007, is reluctant to curtail its mandated use as a blend for gasoline despite the economic and environmental effects their flawed assumptions have led to. Notably, the Obama administration refuses to give the oil industry a victory. One big change since the ethanol law was passed six years ago is the boom in domestic production, which has kept oil prices low and made ethanol even less attractive price-wise. But farmers have to be able to make a living.

So eliminating or reducing these corn-earmarks would be political suicide for a number of politicians of both parties who represent those states where corn is king. With Obama in office, these regulations are going nowhere.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.