UNPATRIOTIC ETHANOL CON MEN
To be 'patriotic' means to be inspired by love of country. Patriots
want the best for their nation, and do not sup****t policies that
damage their country's economy, environment, or the welfare and safety
of their fellow citizens. Ethanol biofuel production harms everything
that true patriots wish to protect.
Certain television networks, government officials, and biofuel
manufacturers are misleading the American people with propaganda that
biofuels are somehow "patriotic" and freeing us from dependence on
foreign oil. They say that if biofuels cause rapid food price
inflation, then Americans should suffer with a smile because ethanol
is good for our "national security." This argument is nonsense, and a
rationalization used to take money from ordinary American citizens to
subsidize large agricultural cor****ations that make our biofuels. Big
business makes ethanol, not Mom and Pop, and ethanol production is
equivalent to a new tax on food that starves the poor to feed the
rich. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, the German Government Development
Minister, stated ahead of a recent World Bank meeting in Wa****ngton
D.C. that increasing production of biofuels is "30 to 70% responsible
for the rapid rise in food prices."
We have to use substantial amounts natural gas, coal, and oil just to
manufacture ethanol, and it takes more fossil fuel derived energy to
produce ethanol from corn than it does to make ordinary gasoline from
crude oil. America needs real energy solutions, not a destructive
product that yields no positive net energy gain. To add insult to
injury, ethanol is subsided by our hard earned tax dollars through a $.
51 per gallon federal tax credit, so we are paying more money for less
energy.
The other false argument is that ethanol is a "clean" fuel that will
reduce air pollution. That would only be true if ethanol had the same
energy content as gasoline and yielded the same gas mileage, which it
does not. Ethanol inherently has 30% less energy per gallon than
gasoline, so you have to burn much more ethanol per miles traveled.
On a per mile basis, which is the only basis that counts, ethanol does
not reduce automobile exhaust emissions.
Ethanol speeds global warming because ethanol production releases more
greenhouse gases than gasoline, and the added corn farming causes
water shortage and water pollution due to fertilizer run-off. Farming
for ethanol erodes topsoil and eliminates essential food surpluses, so
we have no food safety net when we need it the most, which is NOW!
American food banks are running low on supplies, and many low income
Americans are going hungry because our politicians wanted the
financial and political backing of the powerful biofuel lobby, a
monster they created by their own scientific ignorance and myopic
political selfishness.
The ethanol con men are acting in an "unpatriotic" way by shrinking
the human food supply as they turn countless warehouses of our own
precious food into inferior quality fuel. Our politicians have
created a world food crisis, and millions are going hungry, from
Tibet, to Indonesia, to Haiti, to Louisiana. President George W.
Bush's Katrina style mishandling of the United States food supply may
be the biggest man made disaster of the 21st century.
For all the details on biofuels, SEE "The biofuel hoax is causing a
world food crisis!" at:
http://home.att.net/~meditation/bio-fuel-hoax.html
SEE the "Thermodynamics of the Corn-Ethanol Biofuel Cycle"
http://petroleum.berkeley.edu/papers/patzek/CRPS416-Patzek-Web.pdf
Christopher Calder
Eugene, Oregon
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