September
2006
Ethanol & oil: Where terror policy falls down
Here is from New York Times columnist Thomas “The World is Flat” Friedman’s column:
Thanks to pressure from Midwest farmers and agribusinesses, who want to protect the U.S. corn ethanol industry from competition from Brazilian sugar ethanol, we have imposed a stiff tariff to keep it out.
“We do this even though Brazilian sugar ethanol provides eight times the energy of the fossil fuel used to make it, while American corn ethanol provides only 1.3 times the energy of the fossil fuel used to make it. We do this even though sugar ethanol reduces greenhouses gases more than corn ethanol.
“And we do this even though sugar cane ethanol can easily be grown in poor tropical countries in Africa or the Caribbean, and could actually help alleviate their poverty.
“Yes, you read all this right. We tax imported sugar ethanol, which could finance our poor friends, but we don’t tax imported crude oil, which definitely finances our rich enemies. We’d rather power anti-Americans with our energy purchases than promote anti-poverty.”
If you have access to Friedman’s columns, you might want to read this one. The Times now requires you pay for access to his columns on-line.
Bottom line: It’s time to line up our trade and terrorism polciies.