[+ Font] :: [- Font] :: Printable

Petrofraud and the Etha-hoax

Michael Fox
email: theculturedeconomist@yahoo.com
May 7, 2008

Well, he’s decidered again, and now he claims that he’s “an ethanol person.” And, simplistically, “It makes sense for America to be growing energy.” Of course it does, but of course his idea of common sense is, generally, everyone else’s idea of a utter lunacy. While President Bush is certainly not uniquely to blame for this, on his watch, years have been lost – years in which a different sort of leader (well, a Leader.) – could have transformed the infrastructure of the United States to non-carbon energy sources. There’s a basketful of different technologies to apply, but none of the technology means a thing if it’s just in a book. While leadership could have made the United States energy independent during the last eight years, instead, the one-time oil business loser became its Midas. And you, the taxpayer; you, the driver; have been defrauded. Not only is the tank half empty – so are the grocery bags in the trunk!

While ethanol in some of its more powerful forms should probably be a part of that energy "basket," needless to say, Murphy’s Law applies to the Bush administration. Of all the considered choices for an ethanol crop, corn proves to be one of the least worthy. But, true to form, any discussion of the inefficiency of corn ethanol or its affect on the current global food shortage was shrugged off at Bush’s Press conference Friday, as he faced down the press with a little bit of sophomoric humor and a whole lot of embarrassing simple-mindedness.

Oddly enough, he actually discussed these very options in two State of the Union addresses, and had it been more than lip service, had it been more than a hoax to give ever-increasing corporate welfare to "Big Agra", had a serious effort been made to produce cellulosic ethanol from wood, switchgrass or hemp (imagine that!), and research funds been made available before, say, the Iraqi spigot got shut off for five years, we would not be facing the food shortages that are rippling around the world.

The world is in a genuine food crisis, facing famine, and while such a catastrophe inevitably is created by a variety of causes; the pebble in the pond this time is clearly the massive ethanol project that took out wheat and food-corn harvests across the Midwest. Corn ethanol is nothing more than a terrible hoax. And ironically, should we lose access to more imported oil, by, say, attacking another Middle Eastern country, ethanol would be dearly needed. Too bad corn ethanol only gets 60% of the mileage that gasoline gets.

Still, after years of being told "no" by Congress, he continued to trot out his tired old plan to drill in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), and blames the public’s resistance to that ludicrous project for all the resulting catastrophic economic meltdowns caused by his pro-BigOil and pro-BigAgra policies. After 7 years of being told no to this one stupid idea, can’t he have come up with anything new? Perhaps he’d like to try putting a few new derricks on his soon-to-be-vacated vacation home in Crawford. Or would that damage the brush?

In his weekly Saturday radio burlesque, Bush said, "My administration has been clear and candid on the state of the economy, We saw the economic slowdown coming, we were up front about these concerns with the American people, and we've been taking decisive action." Oh, dear. Really? What actions? Just printing more money so far.

It is absolutely insulting for him to admit that they saw this coming, because if so, they just watched as New Depression began: now the petrofraud administration has left the gas tanks empty, and their etha-hoax has offered little in the way of fuel and left the shelves bare at the grocery store.

It is time to stop standing for this and to contact your Representatives and Senators and demand that corn subsidies be stopped for any corn not being used for food. The minute that happens (if it could), the corn ethanol mistake will end.

Michael Fox
email: theculturedeconomist@yahoo.com
May 7, 2008