Neo-Thanol

The American Enterprise Institute or A.E.I. is a neoconservative think tank.

The rank and file of the Institute include many former contributors to the allegedly defunct 'Project for a New American Century', another neoconservative think tank whose members occupied many of the highest governmental positions in the early Bush years. These neoconservatives were the architects of the Iraq war among other things. Lead 'Project for a New American Century' spokesperson William Kristol can be heard cheering the Iraq war/occupation every week on Fox News and anyplace where neoconservative and Bush loyalists are willing to secretly gather.

A recent A.E.I. article by none other than Newt Gingrich, another neoconservative, is titled - Ethanol, Pro and Con - New Energy Source Means Brighter Future.

Here are a few excerpts:

It is in America's best interest to reduce the world's dependency on oil from unstable regions of the world. Starting with a collaborative effort among individuals, businesses and government leaders, we can fundamentally transform the American energy system to one that is more dependable and more affordable. Yet there is no panacea for the energy challenge we face. It will take a wide-ranging approach that adopts more aggressive development of biofuels and solar, wind, hydrogen and nuclear power.

Though ethanol holds a lot of potential as a partial replacement for gasoline, the ethanol we use today will be replaced by an improved ethanol in the future as ethanol producers continue to advance the fuel's positive energy return on investment (the ratio of how much energy the fuel produces to how much energy is needed to produce the fuel).

Gingrich's article is misnamed, he does not go into the deep and destructive cons of ethanol and biofuel.

I would suspect the fact that ethanol and biofuel is a highly subsidized industry in the USA, meaning we the taxpayer are paying for its corporate evolution, is one of Gingrich's favorite aspects. Corporate welfare would always trump social service welfare for Gingrich, the man who helped demonise the single black mother in the 1994 Republican revolution in Congress.

Even though I have covered this many times on this blog, here is an excellent excerpt on a few of the negatives:

The push for ethanol and other biofuels has spawned an industry that depends on billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies, and not only in the United States. In 2005, global ethanol production was 9.66 billion gallons, of which Brazil produced 45.2 percent (from sugar cane) and the United States 44.5 percent (from corn). Global production of biodiesel (most of it in Europe), made from oilseeds, was almost one billion gallons.

The industry's growth has meant that a larger and larger share of corn production is being used to feed the huge mills that produce ethanol. According to some estimates, ethanol plants will burn up to half of U.S. domestic corn supplies within a few years. Ethanol demand will bring 2007 inventories of corn to their lowest levels since 1995 (a drought year), even though 2006 yielded the third-largest corn crop on record. Iowa may soon become a net corn importer.

The enormous volume of corn required by the ethanol industry is sending shock waves through the food system. (The United States accounts for some 40 percent of the world's total corn production and over half of all corn exports.) In March 2007, corn futures rose to over $4.38 a bushel, the highest level in ten years. Wheat and rice prices have also surged to decade highs, because even as those grains are increasingly being used as substitutes for corn, farmers are planting more acres with corn and fewer acres with other crops.

This might sound like nirvana to corn producers, but it is hardly that for consumers, especially in poor developing countries, who will be hit with a double shock if both food prices and oil prices stay high...source

This article is a year old and today we are witnessing the worldwide increase in food prices. Curiosly Gingrich makes virtually no connection between ethanol and biodiesel production and the rising price of food, which is leading to massive hunger in poorer countries.

Here are some excerpts from a Time magazine article - The World's Growing Food-Price Crisis

Rocketing food prices — some of which have more than doubled in two years — have sparked riots in numerous countries recently. Millions are reeling from sticker shock and governments are scrambling to staunch a fast-moving crisis before it spins out of control. From Mexico to Pakistan, protests have turned violent. Rioters tore through three cities in the West African nation of Burkina Faso last month, burning government buildings and looting stores. Days later in Cameroon, a taxi drivers' strike over fuel prices mutated into a massive protest about food prices, leaving around 20 people dead. Similar protests exploded in Senegal and Mauritania late last year. And Indian protesters burned hundreds of food-ration stores in West Bengal last October...

The push to produce biofuels as an alternative to hydrocarbons is further straining food supplies, especially in the U.S., where generous subsidies for ethanol have lured thousands of farmers away from growing crops for food. "The area used for biofuels is increasing each year...