San Diego Union-Trib: With food costs rising, ethanol benefits now questioned

[El Pinko]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20080506-1349-ethanol-food.html



With food costs rising, ethanol benefits now questioned
By H. Josef Hebert
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:49 p.m. May 6, 2008

WASHINGTON – Just months ago, ethanol was the Holy Grail to energy independence and a “green fuel” that would help nudge the country away from climate changing fossil energy.
Democrats and Republicans cheered its benefits as Congress directed a fivefold increase in ethanol use as a motor fuel. President Bush called it key to his strategy to cut gasoline use by 20 percent by 2010.

But now with skyrocketing food costs – even U.S. senators are complaining about seeing shocking prices at the supermarket – and hunger spreading across the globe, some lawmakers are wondering if they made a mistake.

“Our enthusiasm for corn ethanol deserves a second look. That's all I'm saying, a second look,” said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., at a House hearing Tuesday where the impact of ethanol on soaring food costs was given a wide airing. The dramatic reversal has stunned ethanol producers and its supporters in Washington as they have seen their product shift from being an object of praise to one of derision.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, one of the Senate's two working farmers and a longtime ethanol booster, said he finds it hard to believe that ethanol could be “clobbered the way it's being clobbered right now” over the issue of food costs. What does the cost of corn have to do with the price of wheat or rice, he is telling people.