Your Opinions: Need the facts about ethanol
Battle Creek Enquirer
I was disappointed to see Gary Wolfram's anti-ethanol article ("Ethanol's 15% blunder," Aug. 30). Readers should consider the facts about ethanol, instead of the myths touted by Wolfram. Corn-ethanol is not causing food prices to increase; only 19 cents of every food dollar goes toward the value of farm products. Rising transportation, labor and business expenses are the real culprit in food costs. Ethanol subsidies said to "benefit farmers" are actually tax credits to petroleum companies, not corn growers. Eight million flex-fuel cars run on higher blends, a number that hardly qualifies as "only a few," and the waiver request will not mandate E15 fuel, it will allow retailers the option to sell it.
Ethanol production in the U.S. does not simply benefit "a small special-interest group," nor does it "harm every one of us." In fact, quite the opposite is true; U.S.-made ethanol benefits every American! It saves consumers money at the pump (a Merrill Lynch study said, "biofuels like ethanol lower gas prices by at least 15 percent"), employs hundreds of thousands of people in industry jobs (a LECG study reported 494,000) and reduces damage to our atmosphere (corn-ethanol decreases GHG emissions by approximately 50 percent over gasoline).
Eliminating the tariff and importing Brazilian ethanol would result in the loss of $20 billion in household income and the outsourcing of more American jobs. Let's support the American farmer and keep American dollars and American jobs in America; support higher blends and the U.S. ethanol industry.
J.R. Walter
Battle Creek
