City Journal:  A Simple Policy to Reduce Food Prices

Using food to make fuel is such a stupid idea, politicians won’t even consider changing the rule.

EPA rules effectively require that automotive gasoline sold in the U.S. contain 10 percent ethanol…The amount of energy contained in a gallon of ethanol, it turns out, is only slightly higher than the fossil-fuel energy needed to grow and process the corn that produces that ethanol.

Look at the Pros and Cons of adding ethanol to gasoline.

Pros

  • The ethanol mandate inflates the price of corn, so large Ag farms make big money.
  • Iowa is the top corn-producing state.
  • The Iowa Caucus is the first test of a presidential candidate.

Cons

  • It takes about a gallon of fossil fuel to produce a gallon of ethanol.   
  • Running on ethanol produces about as much carbon dioxide as running on gasoline.
  • Farm land and farm labor are used for ethanol, instead of growing food.  That makes food more expensive.
  • Ethanol attracts water, and is why gasoline goes bad so quickly.  Bad gas fouls engines in lawn mowers, chain saws, snow blowers or anything that isn’t used very much.

The result is we pay more for gasoline to get an inferior fuel with no saving of fossil fuel or reduction in emissions.

Since food competes with ethanol, food is more expensive.  Since the price of gas effects everything, cost of living is higher.