Switch to corn-based fuel links grain and energy prices
Washington Post Apr 30, 08 2:28 PM CDT
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When Congress passed its latest energy bill four months ago, the provision to boost ethanol requirements was exceedingly popular. But now, critics are lambasting that measure, and the ethanol movement in general, for linking skyrocketing food and oil prices. “We used to have a grain economy and a fuel economy,” one analyst tells the Washington Post . “Now they're beginning to fuse.”
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OPINION
LA Times editors take a break from nonsense and turn to issues
Los Angeles Times Apr 28, 08 8:23 PM CDT
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Quick, before the public completely loses interest: Let’s leave aside “guns, bitterness, race, religion, geriatric radicals and other trivia,” and turn to real presidential political issues, Los Angeles Times editors write. They pose some questions that most need answering: For John McCain: You voted against giving workers extended time to file discrimination lawsuits. How will your alternative—education for victims—end biased practices?
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Distiller could home-brew ethanol for as little as $1 a gallon
New York Times Apr 27, 08 1:56 PM CDT
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Backyard brew may soon ease the pain at the gas pump if two entrepreneurs pushing a home ethanol system have their way, reports the New York Times. E-Fuel Corporation's device is roughly the size of a stackable washer-dryer and will sell for about $10,000 . Using sugar or feedstock and a specially designed yeast, it creates ethanol for as little as a dollar a gallon, which produces one-eighth the carbon of gasoline.
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Predicts widespread starvation, conflict
BBC Apr 13, 08 9:44 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Rising food prices may soon have dire global consequences with starving people rioting in the streets, warns the head of the International Monetary Fund. “Hundred of thousands of people will be starving,” he said yesterday at a meeting in Washington. “Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences for all their lives.” Climbing food prices will lead to increased trade imbalances in developing countries, with major ramifications.
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As farmers plant more crops for biofuels, moviegoers feel pinch
Los Angeles Times Mar 14, 08 9:00 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The movie stars driving flex-fuel SUV are driving up popcorn prices at the nation’s nickelodeons, and it’s not because of their salaries: A move toward planting crops for alternative-fuel production has made popping corn more scarce—and therefore more expensive, the Los Angeles Times reports. Moviegoers shouldn’t fret too much, for the hike could be as little as 15 cents.
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$4 gallon of gas around the corner, experts warn
CNN Mar 10, 08 8:50 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Gas prices rocketed 64 cents in the last year to a national average of $3.20 per gallon of regular, CNN reports. A survey of prices at 5,000 gas stations found the highest price, $3.58, in San Francisco and the lowest, $2.99, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The last two weeks alone saw an increase of 9 cents a gallon.
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'We're talking about decades' before cars can be weaned off fossil fuels
Der Spiegel Mar 5, 08 12:00 PM CST
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Green was the color of opening day yesterday at the International Auto Salon in Geneva, another show full of hybrids and other low-emission vehicles, with green lighting and nature-friendly slogans to prove car companies care, Der Spiegel reports. Still, cautions General Motors' CEO to those set to pronounce the gasoline era dead, "We're just at the beginning of this changeover."
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Drought would ripple through US economy
Los Angeles Times Mar 3, 08 12:05 PM CST
(Newser)
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The US is becoming so dependent on corn that a drought would have catastrophic effects that would ripple throughout the economy, reports the LA Times. Corn is essential as staple livestock feed, artificial sweetener, and a basic component of ethanol. A "corn shock" could lead to $5 gas and $3.50 eggs, economists warn. "We are replacing price volatility from the Middle East with Midwestern weather price volatility," said one analyst.
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Rising fuel and ingredient costs affect traditional cheap eats
MSNBC Mar 1, 08 3:58 PM CST
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Even cheap foods like pizza and bagels are getting pricey these days over a mix of inflationary pressures, MSNBC reports. Last year's shocking 4% food price hike was driven by more than gas prices, one analyst says: It's diesel that fuels the trucks and trains that transport goods. "It's everything that gets shipped," he said—which makes diesel costs "much scarier" than the cost of gas.
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US farmers strike it rich satisfying ethanol, export demands
Wall Street Journal Feb 15, 08 2:55 AM CST
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The US economy may be teetering on a precipice but agriculture is enjoying what one industry analyst is calling a "golden age" after decades of decline, with bountiful harvests of crops and profits. The boom is fueled by the soaring demand from ethanol producers and to fill grain orders from China and India, reports the Wall Street Journal .
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Land likely to be used for production is already helping absorb carbon
Washington Post Feb 8, 08 8:21 PM CST
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Biofuels could hurt Earth more than help it, two new studies conclude. Over 30 years, argues one, corn-based ethanol would spout twice the greenhouse gas of regular gasoline; the other notes environmental damage likely to be wreaked by chopping rainforests and other areas for production, the Washington Post reports. The findings question international focus on using biofuel to combat climate change.
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Producing crops for fuel releases more greenhouse gas than it saves: studies
Los Angeles Times Feb 8, 08 3:54 AM CST
(Newser)
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Producing crops for biofuel releases more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than is saved by using the alternative energy, according to the findings of two surprising new studies. Converting US farmland from producing food to ethanol necessitates food production elsewhere, vastly increasing greenhouse gas emissions as forests and grasslands are destroyed to make fields. The findings prompted 10 scientists to write to President Bush and lawmakers, urging new policy "that ensures biofuels are not produced on productive" forests, grassland or cropland.
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