THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 114, June 5, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CORN ETHANOL & A NON-WARMING EARTH
By Dennis T. Avery
U.S. FEDERAL FARM LEGISLATION & THE AMERICAN ECONOMY: THE IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT MANDATES & SUBSIDIES FOR CORN ETHONOL ON THE
COST OF LIVING IN THE U.S.A. -- HOW CORN ETHANOL SUBSIDIES OVER-REWARD CROP FARMERS & PENALIZE LIVESTOCK FARMERS -- CREATING AN INSTANT
GLOBAL FOOD SHORTAGE -- GLOBAL WARMING, OR GLOBAL COOLING?
FULL STORY:
The earth has failed to warm at all for 15 years now, and American farmers are afraid of losing the “renewable fuel” mandate for corn ethanol — which has given them
record crop prices and incomes since 2007. So, they’re proposing a new entitlement designed to ensure that they’ll never lose money again. Their proposed new
federal farm bill would guarantee that farmers’ incomes don’t decline — and, if future farm prices rise even more, the Feds’ guarantee would ratchet up too.
Thus, if the U.S. Congress should decide the planet isn’t parboiling itself after all, the taxpayers would be on the hook for even more farm subsidy than today. Forget
about that federal debt problem. Everyone else can pitch in to cut government spending, but farmers shouldn’t have to. Never mind that they’re now earning more
than the average American, and have far more net worth.
Dr. Bruce Babcock, Director of the Biobased Industry Center and Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, says the new program could give
farmers $8 to $14 billion per year, compared to the $5 billion they’ve been getting in direct subsidy payments — on top of their ethanol subsidies. And, if they lose
the ethanol mandate, and crop prices fall, the government direct payments will get even bigger.
Gasoline prices have doubled under President Obama. Even so, the 10 percent ethanol that the EPA forces into our gasoline — “to save the planet” from fossil fuels
— still costs even more than the gasoline. While delivering 35 percent fewer miles per gallon. Recently, the EPA approved mixing even more ethanol into our gas —
15 percent instead of 10. Automakers warn they cannot stand behind their engine guarantees at the higher blending rate.
Meanwhile, food prices have soared almost as much as gas prices, and for the same reason. As we divert more of our corn from cereals and livestock feed to
low-grade auto fuel, we are creating an instant global food shortage. The price of corn was under $2 per bushel in 2007, but has, since, averaged nearer to $7. Farmers
are making so much money they’ve bid up their own land prices to record levels. Thus they raise their own costs to match their payments.
But aren’t we saving the planet? Nope, not even that. Producing a gallon of corn ethanol produces almost the same level of carbon in the atmosphere as burning
gasoline. Moreover, instead of temperatures soaring upward, as the environmentalists claimed they would, the earth’s temperatures have gone down since 2007.
The Arctic ice is returning, as the Russians predicted it would, due to the 70-year Arctic Ocean cycle. The Antarctic has been cooling since the 1960s. The greenhouse
theory said both poles would melt as CO2 levels rose, but neither have. The Polar bears are at least 600,000 years old, which means they’ve already been though five
warm interglacials with open water at the North Pole. The seals must bask on the beaches, instead of on the ice, and the bears romp down to catch them anyway.
So why subsidize corn ethanol?
I grew up on a farm, and have worked with farmers all my life. As a group, they are my heroes; but, while corn ethanol over-rewards crop farmers, it penalizes livestock
farmers. (driving up the cost of hamburgers and chicken tenders). It’s a wash, as far as farm belt votes are concerned. Corn ethanol, unfortunately, is the worst farm
program ever conceived because it raises gas and food prices simultaneously.
And, now that we’ve discovered shale gas and oil, guess who’ll get a royalty on every cubic foot of shale gas that gets pumped up from below? Answer: The farmers
who own the land above the gas. That reward may go to a different set of farmers, but they’re all equally deserving, right? More to the point, they will all bid their own
land values up, until they can’t make a profit even at $7 per corn bushel.
What will the Senators do to ensure their re-election then?
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Agriculture, the Economy, & Human Health & Welfare:
Policy Issues Relating to Food Production & Consumption
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He was formerly a senior analyst for the U.S.
Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years. Readers may write to him at P.O. Box 202,
Churchville, Virginia, 2442; send email to cgfi@hughes.net; or visit our website at www. cgfi.org
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity