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out, then
Americans move on
By Mary C. Curtis
MCT
This is an important elec¬
tion year, we are told, as
Americans set a course for the
country and choose a new
leader. And we — the media
and their audience are talk
ing about Paris Hilton’s cam¬
paign spot and John Edwards’
extramarital affair.
In this case, though, the
distraction may be more short¬
lived than usual. Signs are
hopeful.
It’s not that these stories
will go away. Face it, sex is
easier to comprehend than
armored vehicles roaring
toward Ossetia. The Olympics
are no match for bulletins
about a different sort of game.
John Edwards’ fall from
grace is a cable-ready story of
hubris. Even Hilton’s tongue
in-cheek foray into poolside
politicking seems old school
next to a family man’s affair, a
sick wife, a baby and, yes,
another blonde.
But after pausing to
observe yet another political
and personal train wreck, the
public will return to puzzling
over whether drilling for oil
off America’s coastline will
cause prices at the pump to
drop.
The shortened lifespan of
this tabloid tale doesn’t add up
to an excuse for Edwards, who
put himself squarely on the
front of the National Enquirer
when he lied repeatedly about
a 2006 affair.
This is 2008, when a detail
like that about a public person
— one with presidential ambi¬
tions won’t stay secret for
long. By going ahead with a
campaign, Edwards jeopard¬
ized his party and deceived his
supporters and staff. A smart
guy should have known it
would end this way.
Thankfully, the familiar
script is almost played out.
We’ve had a statement
fro|i him, stating t^ obvious:
Driving under the influence of ethanol
By Sean Wilson
Georgia Public Policy Foundation
Congress decreed in 2007
that ethanol will be key to
America’s energy future, with
the Energy Independence and
Security Act mandating the
production of 36 billion gallons
of ethanol by 2022. The argu
ment is that America’s foreign
oil addiction is bad for the
economy, the environment and
national security.
Of that, 21 billion gallons
are to come from “advanced "
biofuels, still largely in the
experimental stage.' The bal
ance will be made up by com
ethanol, much to the delight of
the farm lobby and the dismay
of the price-squeezed American
public. Furthermore, Congress
has gifted ethanol blenders with
a 45 cent-per-gallon subsidy.
Ethanol is an alcohol that
can be blended with gasoline to
power vehicles in varying pro
portions up to El00 (pure
ethanol). The most common
U.S. blends are E-10 and E-85,
which consist of 10 percent and
85 percent ethanol respectively,
Most U.S. automobiles support
the use of E10, but only flex
fuel vehicles can run on E85.
Ethanol can be made from a
variety of crops such as corn
and sugar cane, as well as from
cellulosic materials.
By substituting corn for
crude, proponents say, we can
redirect to American farmers
the $700 billion we send to the
sheikhs. This transfer will then
create an economic boom as
more Americans find employ¬
ment in the harvesting, refining
and transporting of this patriotic
fuel source. Environmentalists
like ethanol, believing it is
clean, renewable and releases
fewer greenhouse gases.
But the assumptions do not
hold up. First, all that’s
green” about corn ethanol is
the cornstalks. Taking land use
changes from forest into crop
land into account, there is a sig
nificant increase in atmospheric
carbon from producing ethanol,
A University of Minnesota
Photo/MCT
John Edwards concedes, his third place finish in the
South Carolina Jan. 26 in Columbia, S.C.
.... I started to believe that I was
special and became increas¬
ingly egocentric...
One from his wife,
Elizabeth Edwards, showing
the strength that has led some
to wonder if the wrong
Edwards ran for office: “I am
proud of the courage John
showed by his honesty in the
face of shame. ••
And we’ve been spared the
public press conference with
the couple standing side by
side.
The Enquirer will no doubt
continue to wring the living
daylights out of the story. On
Saturday the plot thickened:
The woman Edwards had an
affair with said she wouldn’t
pursue paternity testing to
determine who fathered her
child.
There may still be a few
experts speculating on what it
all means *— to the presiden¬
tial race, to the parties
involved, to the everlasting
differences between men and
women. L
study found that “Converting
intact ecosystems to [biofuels]
production would result in
reduced greenhouse gas savings
or even net greenhouse gas
release.”
The increase in corn
demand requires the clearing of
more land, higher water use,
soil depletion and deforestation.
Growing com is energy-inten
sive, requiring fossil fuels to
operate the farm, fertilize, spray
pesticides, process the crop and
transport it.
Fertilizers themselves gen
erate nitrous oxide, which is
associated with global warm
ing. All of these pesticides and
fertilizers potentially make their
way as runoff to the Gulf of
Mexico, where the nitrogen and
phosphorous create vast biolog
ical dead zones about the size
of New Jersey.
Diverting food to fuel has
serious price consequences,
The smaller the supply of
something, the higher its price
will become until it is equalized
with demand,
So it is with corn: Less
available for food means that
what remains will cost more,
With com the primary ingredi
ent in livestock feed, the costs
of many products derived from
livestock (cheese, chicken, beef
and so on) will also increase.
Farmers unable to afford to
feed their animals will sell
them off, cutting supply further
and driving up prices. The
prices of barley and wheat will
rise as farmers opt for the better
returns on com.
In addition, all crops are
inherently vulnerable to
drought, disease, Hooding and
insects; now our fuel source
will be too. As Lawrence
Goldstein of the Energy Policy
Research Foundation puts it,
“Our energy policy is like play
ing Russian roulette with every
chamber loaded,
As for energy efficiency:
Ethanol has 34 percent less
energy than gasoline, which
means fewer miles per tank. A
car that once got 30 mpg on
gasoline will only get 20 on
Then, it will end.
Wars still rage in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and now in the
former Soviet Union. The
housing market will get worse
before it gets better. Autumn
will bring presidential debates
that move beyond Paris and
the personal.
For now, Edwards’ signa¬
ture issue of poverty and eco¬
nomic inequality amid pros¬
perity won’t be what he’s
known for, and that’s sad.
But if you’re feeling guilty
for taking interest in the rise
and fall of a golden career,
remember it has always been
so, since tabloid rumors of
Thomas Jefferson’s relation¬
ship with his slave Sally
Hemings intruded upon anoth¬
er presidential contest.
No doubt voters hung on
every word. No doubt they
moved on.
Mary C. Curtis is a colum¬
nist for the Charlotte
Observer: Readers may send
her e-mail at mcurtis@char
lotteobserver. con ^
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS - Wednesday, August 13,2008
fi
The grain used to fill
fuel one tank 25-gallon could SUV feed
a person for an
entire year.
99
pure ethanol - which is why
Henry Ford long ago wisely
rejected ethanol. It can’t be
piped through existing oil infra
structure, and must be distrib
uted by rail, truck or barge.
Brazil’s ethanol, made from
sugar cane, is cheaper and more
energy-efficient, but Congress
handicaps importation with a
54-cent tariff on each gallon of
Brazilian ethanol.
Tally all the energy inputs to
water, fertilize, transport and
refine a crop into ethanol and
Brazilian sugar cane has an
energy return of 8:1. By con
trast, corn ethanol’s energy
return is a paltry 1.3:1, six
times worse than Brazilian
ethanol and almost four times
worse than gasoline.
Ethanol will not get this
nation off foreign oil. Even if
every ear of com in the country
was fed into an ethanol refin
ery, it would only meet 12 per
cent of gasoline demand,
Currently, the 14 percent of
U.S. corn diverted to ethanol
displaces only 1.72 percent of
gasoline use. Diverting com to
fuel production is pushing up
world food prices, resulting in
protests, riots, and political
instability in several countries.
To give some scope of the
problem, consider this: The
grain used to fill one 25-gallon
SUV fuel tank could feed a per¬
son for an entire year.
The defenders of ethanol
contend that the future lies not
in corn but in in cellulosic
ethanol, also known as ceetol.
Ceetol comes from plants with
a higher energy content that do
not compete with food, such as
switchgrass and wood chips.
Ceetol remains cost-prohib
itive, however, for a variety of
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PAGE 9A
technological, logistical and
land-use reasons. The cellulosic
conversion process requires
substantial amounts of energy
that only nuclear can provide in
a carbon-friendly way.
To test the viability of cee
tol, the U.S. Department of
Energy is funding six biore
fineries, including one in
Soperton that will use wood
waste. With a $76 million fed
eral grant and $6 million
Georgia grant, the Soperton
facility is scheduled to begin
production in 2009. Its
planned 20 million gallons of
ceetol a year are a drop in the
bucket compared to the 6.5 bil
lion gallons of ethanol the
United States produced in
2007.
In 2007 government subsi
dies for ethanol reached a stag
gering $8.4 billion. Who bene
fits from all this government
largesse? Enormous agribusi
nesses certainly do through
protections for the domestic
sugar industry, ethanol subsi
dies and subsidized grain
exports,
Americans are being urged
to break free from the Mideast
energy stranglehold and
embrace this most familiar and
convenient alternative. But if
Congress is truly interested in
energy independence and stop
ping spiraling food prices, it
needs to stop distorting the
economy in the first place,
Congress must rescind its
ethanol production mandate,
end the substantial subsidies
and protectionist tariff against
cheap Brazilian ethanol and
explore domestic fuel
resources.
If the ethanol industry
makes sense, it will do so with¬
out the subsidies and artificial
barriers to competition. If it
does not, then it is time to focus
research on finding another
path to energy independence.
Sean Wilson, a senior at
Georgia Tech majoring in
International Affairs with a
concentration in Economics, is
an intern at the Georgia Public
Policy Foundation.