Today in Biofuels Opinion: “The ethanol boondoggle is wreaking havoc worldwide”

Edward Lazear, Chairman, US Council of Economic Advisers: “The bottom line is that ethanol production is a significant contributor to increases in corn prices, but neither U.S. nor worldwide biofuel production can account for much of the rise in food prices.”

The Utah Daily Herald: “It’s finally dawning on everyone — even Congress — that the ethanol boondoggle is wreaking havoc worldwide. It’s boosting food prices, destabilizing poor nations and, ironically, harming the environment. It’s the fault of Washington politicians….Have we lost our minds? Apparently so… A recent study from Purdue University puts the added U.S. food cost from the congressional ethanol mandate at $15 billion in 2007 — about $130 per household, and that’s out of date…America’s muttonheaded biofuels policy might be forgivable if ethanol had other benefits, but in almost every way it’s inferior to oil-based fuels. Ethanol provides 30 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline. Corrected for energy content, ethanol’s cost is equivalent to a wholesale gasoline price of $6.67 per gallon…Ethanol isn’t even friendly to the environment. Creating one gallon of fuel requires up to 1,700 gallons of water. And it’s a waste of good farm land. According to one study, fossil-fuel production is 10,000 times more efficient than biofuel, in terms of energy produced per unit of land.

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