Is the pendulum starting to "swing back"?

WASHINGTON — Just months ago, ethanol was the Holy Grail to energy independence and a "green fuel" that would help nudge the country away from climate changing fossil energy.

Democrats and Republicans cheered its benefits as Congress directed a fivefold increase in ethanol use as a motor fuel. President Bush called it key to his strategy to cut gasoline use by 20 percent by 2010.

But now with skyrocketing food costs -- even U.S. senators are complaining about seeing shocking prices at the supermarket -- and hunger spreading across the globe, some lawmakers are wondering if they made a mistake.

"Our enthusiasm for corn ethanol deserves a second look. That's all I'm saying, a second look," said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., at a House hearing Tuesday where the impact of ethanol on soaring food costs was given a wide airing.

The dramatic reversal has stunned ethanol producers and its supporters in Washington as they have seen their product shift from being an object of praise to one of derision.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, one of the Senate's two working farmers and a longtime ethanol booster, said he finds it hard to believe that ethanol could be "clobbered the way it's being clobbered right now" over the issue of food costs. What does the cost of corn have to do with the price of wheat or rice, he is telling people.

The uproar over ethanol is clearly gaining momentum.

The governor of Texas and 26 senators, including the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee John McCain, are asking the Environmental Protection Agency to cut this year's requirement for 9 billion gallons of corn ethanol in half to ease, they say, food costs. Connecticut's governor recently asked Congress to temporary waive the requirement.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., is gathering senators' signatures on a letter opposing any EPA action so "this attack on ethanol will be blocked," said a statement from Thune's office. "It will be a fight."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354350,00.html

TerryRC wrote:Did the moron become a Senator or did the Senator become a moron?

He was probably elected on his religious beliefs and not his intelligence.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, one of the Senate's two working farmers and a longtime ethanol booster,

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., is gathering senators' signatures on a letter opposing any EPA action so "this attack on ethanol will be blocked,"

TerryRC wrote:Did the moron become a Senator or did the Senator become a moron?

He was probably elected on his religious beliefs and not his intelligence.