What a surprise! The Wall Street Journal notes: Ethanol Craze Cools As Doubts Multiply. As you've seen here before, ethanol truly is a craze. Now, the WSJ is taking note. As predicted, diverting food crops to fuel production has driven up the price of food and really doesn't do much to lessen dependence upon petroleum. A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that biofuels "offer a cure [for oil dependence] that is worse than the disease." A National Academy of Sciences study said corn-based ethanol could strain water supplies.
As noted here before, each corn plant transpires around two gallons of water per day, and as water vapor is by far the most significant of the so-called "greenhouse gases", it makes no environmental sense to grow corn for conversion into biofool. Moreover, the effects of doing so translate into a global degradation of the overall food supply: prices for beef, pork, and chicken must escalate in response to diminished availability of feed. The same applies to milk prices, of course, and to corn meal - which affects the costs involved to make tacos and tortillas. Already, Mexico has expressed concern over corn meal, which is a dietary staple for many in that country.
Now that even environmeddlists are joining with foreign governments and economists to note the downside of biofool, the WSJ is taking note of what has been observed here for quite some time. They're a little late to the dance, but at least they've put in an appearance.
There's a reason why it's been referred to as biofool here, and for so long.
