Ethanol isn't the answer: here's why

SHOOT: Simple - would you rather have fuel in your car or food in your stomach? Because that's the choice we face. It's a simple equation - energy (which is growing scarcer by the day) is diverted either to ethanol for fuel or factories for food. It may take a while for people all over the world who drive cars to realise that this privilege is no longer non-negotiable, no longer an ENTITLEMENT. Governments of the future are likely to discourage driving and car ownership by implementing a gas tax. As Jim Kunstler says: we can't run the world's highway systems or even a substantial fraction of it on gas, or any combination of alternatives the way we're running it now. That phase of our history is over."

clipped from finance.yahoo.com WASHINGTON (AP) -- Food stamps and child nutrition programs are expected to cost up to $900 million more this year because of increased ethanol use. Higher use of the corn-based fuel additive accounted for about 10 percent to 15 percent of the rise in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That could mean the government will have to spend more on food programs for the needy during the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30. It estimated the additional cost at up to $900 million. The CBO said other factors, such as skyrocketing energy costs, have had an even greater effect than ethanol on food prices. CBO economists estimate that increased costs for food programs overall due to higher food prices will be about $5.3 billion this budget year.