Obama Reality Check - Ethanol Edition
Corn will never solve our energy needs, or wean us off of foreign oil. But that fact hasn't stopped Obama from naming a whole bushel of corn-boosters to his cabinet.
President-elect Obama spoke movingly during the campaign about bringing change “from the bottom up.” But like a lot of his rhetoric on the stump, that slogan isn’t bearing much fruit when it comes to the work of governing. We’ve watched one cabinet position after another in the Obama administration go to highly-connected, longtime Washington insiders–ie: the very top of the top. And when it comes to biofuels and renewable energy, it looks like we can expect this top-down approach to continue. From The Hill:
President-elect Obama’s Cabinet is beginning to look like a dream team for ethanol.
Obama on Wednesday placed two more supporters of the corn-based variety renewable fuel in his Cabinet by selecting former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack to lead the Agriculture Department and Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) as his Interior secretary.
…
Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), another ethanol supporter and like Vilsack a corn-belt politician, may join Obama’s Cabinet as secretary of Transportation.
As we’ve discussed numerous times, corn-based ethanol is a classic Washington non-solution solution. It burns just about as much energy as it creates. It eats into our food supply. It won’t ease global warming or wean us off foreign oil. And it costs a fortune. But it does do one thing: it sends billions of tax dollars in bloated subsidies straight into the corporate coffers of giant agribusiness firms like Monsanto and Archer Daniels Midland Corporation. Those corporations, in turn, kick back a nice chunk of those profits to politicians like … Obama and Vilsack. Monsanto, which manufacturers genetically altered corn seeds for ethanol production, famously donated used of its corporate jet to former Iowa Governor Vilsack.
All told big agricultural corporations gave Barack Obama nearly $2 million this year. And he’s already repaid them handsomely with cabinet picks like Vilsack.
As for “change from the bottom up”? We guess that just another “corny” campaign slogan. (Rimshot, please!)
Corn is definitely the the slight of hand here. It does not however eat into our food supply. The corn is primarily subsidized for cattle feed local/export. Far less than 10% is used for food. It is a poor choice for food for people (nutritionally) especially genetically altered corn headed by mansanto. The cows onlt process 10-15% of the nutrients, and it makes them unhealthy (excessive weight gain/duration, standing in crowded, infested feed lots, etc. Essentially we grow corn to produce crappy beef, and the main export goes to the EU so they can do the same. Corn could be literally wiped off the map, and whatever it was replaced with would be a healthier food and yield ethanol double or tripple that corn does, with ddg’s serving as natural fertilizers and pesticides (with better results than Monsanto’s monstrosities. It is undoubtably the best transition out of oil for local/independent change. It is currently taking place. Maybe this sight has already covered this, but for a one time viewer and stating that it will “eat the food supply”, leads me to believe that people are still not educated on permaculture and all the available methods of a thousand years or so. Ethanol can be produced in small production plants of many number directly on farms, switch their farms over to ethanol power and then surplus from many farms sold to locally owned co-op. This could easily be done in our area, right now, and increase the profits and productivity of healthy food crops, while reducing emissions with ethanol, and wear and tear on mechanical equipment. NO government or corp is neccessary for this: It can all be done properly if people are aware and organized, though it moves slow. Any thing to due with state or government funding in AG is a waste. Ethanol will work well, just not from corn and not from gov/corporatism.