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Article: Ethanol energy issues confront U.S.
- Article from:
- Pipeline & Gas Journal
- Article date:
- December 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Oildom Publishing Company of Texas, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the politically motivated rush to replace gasoline with corn ethanol, we may be doing ourselves real economic harm. The government-supported push for ethanol will not only increase taxes and damage the environment, but it will add to Americans' burden of high fuel and food costs and especially hurt people on fixed incomes. And it will do almost nothing to reduce dependence on foreign oil--ethanol production this year will replace less than 5% of the gasoline sold.
Clearly, there is a limit to how much of the U.S. corn crop can be gobbled up for ethanol without pushing food prices higher and higher. Increased production of corn-based ethanol during just the ...