The environmentalists fought tooth and nail for decades to prevent the United States from any serious attempts at breaking our dependence on foreign oil. They were succesful in the 60’s and 70’s at stopping construction of nuclear power plants and more recently, they have prevented oil companies from taping rich reserves in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
That’s left us burning coal and natural gas to generate electricity (talk about greenhouse gases!) and no fix yet for the internal combustion engine. Until recently, about the best the eco-freaks could muster was solar power and wind power, neither of which is cheap or feasible. In fact, Robert Kennedy Jr., the defacto leader of the you-conserve-while-we-splurge wing of the environmental movement, has been hawking wind power for years as long as they don’t obstruct his view from the Kennedy coumpound on Cape Cod by planting those ugly windmills offshore, where it makes sense.
Now the environmentalists are all in a dither over the fast-growing bio-fuel industry. They excitedly sing the praises of fuel made from corn, one of which is it’s low cost. An October press release from Senator Ted Kennedy’s office said, “Advances in biodiesel technology have the potential to make energy production significantly cleaner and cheaper in the future.” That statement only makes sense to the leftist eco-freaks who consistently demonsrtate an utter lack of economic understanding.
Yes, fuel made from corn is cheap now only because there’s no demand for it. Just wait until every gas station on Main Street is pumping ethanol and demand suddenly exceeds supply. Not only will fuel for your big Suburban be more expensive, Senator Kennedy, but the average Joe will need a second mortgage to go grocery shopping. Try reading the ingredient labels on some of the stuff in your pantry and I guarantee you’ll see the word “corn” a lot.
The future demand for corn will be many times greater in the production of fuel than in the production of food (your car eats more than you do), but the squeeze is already being felt. According to today’s Washington Post, tortilla makers in Mexico are facing a corn crisis: “Dramatically rising international corn prices, spurred by demand for the grain-based fuel ethanol, have led to expensive tortillas.”