The Ethanol Dilemma

My my my, things can change quickly. For years, conservatives pointed out that ethanol is horrible idea. Liberals, as they always do, dismissed conservative complaints because they “knew” better. Now everything we’ve said has come to pass and liberals are fretting about all the problems “no one could possibly have foreseen.” Things are so bad that many liberals (the rational ones) now want to kill the ethanol program... only, their Dear Leader doesn’t.

Here are the conservative complaints about ethanol:

(1) It’s not actually green as it only seems green if you don’t count the fuel it took to produce the ethanol.

(2) Consumers don’t want it or it would already exist without government pressure. And subsidizing it will crowd out better alternatives.

(3) Using corn for fuel will cause massive inflation in food prices.

“Pshaw!” said liberals. Then reality struck. Now they see these problems too. In fact, there have been a number of studies liberals take on faith which show that corn-based ethanol is not a good biofuel at all. It takes so much energy to produce, so it's worse than using oil and actually causes global warming cooling climate change. Even worse, the subsidies have caused farmers to destroy million of acres of pristine land to plant corn. That has resulted in wetlands and “protected” land being plowed under, as well as the release of carbons from those lands. It has resulted in massive amounts of fertilizer being used, which has polluted rivers and made the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico much worse. It has caused food prices to spike all over the world.

Because of this, articles are appearing from the left demanding that Obama end the ethanol mandate to stop any further damage being done. The AP just did an investigation (LINK) of this, which it called “the secret, dirty cost of Obama’s green power push.” Check out how this article starts:

“The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America's push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply. Even the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a cornfield.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.”

Yep, that's not a happy article. Unfortunately for liberals, Team Obama is in no mood to comply. Why? Well, for one thing, they get a ton of money from industry groups who want this to continue. The entire ethanol industrial complex is big into lobbying. At the same time, Obama doesn’t admit mistakes. And in this case, they fear that if they admit a mistake, then that (1) will create a groundswell against “clean energy” generally and (2) will scare away companies that are investing in biofuels that might actually work. This is what happens when you build a house of cards.

Then came Friday.

On Friday, the EPA issued new regulations cutting back on the amount of ethanol it requires oil companies to use. Has Obama finally seen the light? Hardly. The EPA really had no choice. The way the regulations are written, Congress required a certain number of gallons of ethanol be used. But with Americans using significantly less gasoline than expected in recent years, the EPA mandate was about to hit something called “the blend wall,” where the EPA was requiring the oil companies to use more ethanol than was physically possible given the amount of fuel drivers are using. In other words, the EPA had no choice but to cut back the mandate or everything would have pretty much stopped in the nation’s fuel supply.

Naturally, ethanol groups are very upset that the government didn't ignore reality. Apparently, government money makes you stupid. More interestingly, liberals are knee jerking this all over the place and it points out how hopelessly muddled and clueless their “ideology” has become:

First, you have liberals who are screaming that this will hurt the biofuel industry. They worry this will “chill” companies who are developing better fuels. Yeah, right. How does it help to implode the fuel system of the country in the name of the ethanol fantasy? This is what happens when reality bursts your bubble... reality wins and you retreat or die.

Secondly, they are labeling this a victory for oil companies, which is unacceptable in liberal circles. But you can’t criticize Obama either. So his siding with oil companies is creating a lot of contortion-related head trauma on the left. It also raises this problem: if eliminating ethanol is the environmentally friendly thing to do, but it helps oil companies, how can they do it? They can’t. That’s the problem with ideologues... they get stuck in loops.

Third, they are choosing to hate on oil companies at the expense of helping food companies who are making it harder for the poor to buy food the world over. Nice. “Sorry you poor bastards, but we have an enemy we don't want to see make any more profit than they already do... we're doing it for you.”

Fourth, in their efforts to not let oil companies win, they have sided with the likes of Monsanto and ADM, which is another liberal no-no.

What an interesting illogic problem. Anything they do will help someone they hate and the right choice is to abandon something they believe on principle even though they now know it not only doesn’t work but actively does harm to their favorite causes. Twisted. And in the middle is their un-criticize-able leader profiting from each side. Twisted indeed.

Ah, liberalism.