Sep 15th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
King Corn
A Rich Lowry correspondent has a truly crazy idea — John McCain could talk about an issue where, without lying about his record or Barack Obama’s record, he could genuinely say that he’s on the right side of a public policy question: Ethanol.
Doesn’t seem to be his style, but I thought that was worth tossing out there.
Meanwhile, via Ezra Klein we can see Simon Donner’s chart of American corn:
50 Responses to “King Corn”
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September 15th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I once did a draft speech for Chuck Schumer about ethanol that included a line about crucifying mankind upon a cross of corn but that got vetoed as over-the-top.
Gee, ya think? And is New York Jew Chuck Schumer really the best person to deliver that line?
September 15th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Gee, ya think? And is New York Jew Chuck Schumer really the best person to deliver that line?
You want Henny Youngman, maybe?
September 15th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
It’s worse than even Matt knows. Some say high fructose corn syrup is the real reason behind the American obesity epidemic, that it is processed by the body differently than sugar, and makes us fatter than sugar would.
See this link:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL
(Suggested blog post title: Children of the corn.)
September 15th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
You want Henny Youngman, maybe?
Damn. Beat me to it.
September 15th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I’ve been saying it for a while….Obama is very weak on ethanol, his position is inexcusable. The ethanol lobby isn’t just a waste of money, but they actively stifle alternatives.
On the other hand, McCain’s one saving grace is that he’s almost halfway decent on emissions and the environment.
September 15th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Matt,
While McCain may be on the right side of ethanol, he’s boxed himself in with “Drill, baby, drill!” because his energy plan is to maximize our energy production. I’m not sure that even his campaign can withstand such a blatant contradiction.
September 15th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
If you can figure out a way to convince McCain that corn subsidies are earmarks, then maybe he’d speak about them.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
McCain actually pushed this towards the end of the primaries, when the Farm Bill (aka corporate welfare for agribusiness) was passed, he opposed it and Obama supported it. This is one of the few issues, as Matt points out, where McCain is right. It would be political suicide for Obama to come out against it because it would lose him Iowa, but if McCain pushes this political opportunism it could benefit him in the end. Politics aside the corn lobby is a ferocious one, that is in fact destroying the earth by planting more corn than the earth can handle and as Ikram points out feeding a health epidemic as well. The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a good place for an in depth look at America’s obsession with corn.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
That crazy idea doesn’t particularly jibe with McCain’s disproportionate focus on winning in Wisconsin what with its ridiculous sweet corn culture and all.
Also, almost every time McCain rambles on about his ill defined energy policy he throws energy in there as part of his all-inclusive solution. Taking Lowry’s advice would be suicide-by-flip-flop.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
“Gee, ya think? And is New York Jew Chuck Schumer really the best person to deliver that line?”
Yeah. WJB was all about being over the top, whereas Schumer isn’t, but more importantly I agree that to make references to crucifixtion you need to be a public Christian if not a preacher. On second thought, even Huckabee wouldn’t get away with that line in the rhetorical environment of 2008.
September 15th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Let’s be honest — it might be bad for some things, but it is fucking horrible for the animals we choose to eat.
September 15th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Yep, but it’s the only reason Obama is well ahead in Iowa.
September 15th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
My proposal ? Subsidize ethanol only if it is made from high fructose corn syrup. Taking corn kernels and turning them into fuel contributes to under-nutrition in poor corn importing countries, high fructose corn syrup contributes to obesity in the USA. Kill two birds with one stone.
The best part is that since the subsidy goes to the same over-represented shameless farmers, they won’t put up a fight.
September 15th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
The ethanol subsidy issue is about the only place where McCain rated ahead of Obama in the policy arena as far as I was concerned. But that’s small potatoes now given that the GOP energy policy seems to consist mostly of the phrase “drill, baby, drill!” Not to mention that Sarah Palin has an atrocious set of positions of environmental issues.
September 15th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
That’s an amazing graph. The corn we actually eat on a cob is such an insignificant use that it isn’t even on the charts. I assume that it’s lumped under “cereals and other products.”
September 15th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
You don’t have to worry any more because the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) will cap the amount of corn based ethanol starting in 2009. All additional renewable fuel will have to be made from “second generation” feedstocks which most specifically do not include corn.
September 15th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Iowa grows much corn. First in the nation caucuses are in Iowa. We will never, never, never get rid of ethanol in gasoline. Quite frankly, we’re just lucky no one in New Hampshire has figured out a way to turn maple sap into ethanol, or we’d be subsidizing that too.
September 15th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
There’s a decent amount of corn production in Ohio, Minnesota and Wisconsin, not to mention Indiana and Missouri.
McCain won’t do it. It’s too costly electorally.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Not only is it over-the-top, but it’s unintentionally funny. While the phrase “cross of gold” was tailor-made for political cartoons, a “cross of corn” seems structurally unsound, considering most of the kernels would pop off as mankind languished in the sun before expiring.
September 16th, 2008 at 3:46 am
McCain is also on the right side of the sugar ethanol debate (e.g. no tariffs for Brazilian ethanol).
Of course, from a political point of view McCain isn’t making an issue out of this because it’s a loser politically in the heartland. It’s a loser for an “original” “Maverick” who can’t help but speak his “mind” on “issues”.
More broadly though, McCain’s opposition isn’t just for ethanol subsidies — it’s against subsidies for ALL renewables. McCain has some magical belief that the energy market will take care of the problem on its own (e.g. that new industries can compete against mature industries that he does favor subsidies for — like Big Oil — without government assistance). It’s McCain’s same approach in pretty much every economic area. The magic of the marketplace.
In the case of ethanol, McCain has stumbled onto a reasonable approach more by accident than design. However, his approach on energy policy still has some fundamental problems — not unlike his policy in several other economic areas.
September 16th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
First off, as Franklin rightly says, it would be political suicide for McCain to strongly attack ethanol subsidies (they weren’t put into place by accident, you know).
The other problem is this: aside from removing subsidies and allowing more sugar-ethanol to come in from Brazil, how would McCain address the larger “King Corn” issue without invoking *gasp* government intervention?
September 17th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
You don’t have to worry any more because the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) will cap the amount of corn based ethanol starting in 2009.
That is reassuring. Maybe Obama is counting on that legislation to cancel his pandering position. I hope.
If Obama actually believes corn ethanol is a good idea, he has been poorly advised.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Ask any cattle rancher who looks at slaughtered steer for a living. Corn-fed cattle look awful when compared to grass fed beef or to say grass fed buffalo. The corn fed animals all have outrageous fatty deposits all throughout their carcass. And we wonder why humans are getting fat by eating GMO corn? Its no secret. Corn is used to rapidly and CHEAPLY (via sham subsidies) increase the fat content–ergo weight. Why should it be any surprise that it would have the same effect on humans?
GMO corn has been specifically engineered to do what it does best, accelerate the sugar to fat conversion process.
I would imagine that surgeons could tell us the same thing.
The corn industry replaced the reliance on can sugars produced in banana republics. The US Govt. intentionally undermined their industry in favor of the US agribusinesses. The manufacturing plants loved the cheapened sweeteners and used them in nearly every aspect of the food chain. However, we are paying a deadly price for agribusinesses greed. Disease, diabetes and death.
Corn should be treated as a controlled substance and regulated. It is FAR FAR FAR more dangerous than heroine or cocaine. From a pure statistics standpoint, more people are effected, more die from corn-related diseases than any narcotic. Moreover, we as taxpayers are subsidizing this whole death trap. It is time to END the farm bill once and for all.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
The Truth,
One & a half billion bushels of corn left over at the end
of last year after everybody bought their share- hardly
a shortage.
Get your head out of Big Oil`s ass and read `Alcohol Can Be
A Gas`.
P.S. Have you heard of cellulosic based ethanol? Soon will
come.
September 18th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Ethanol isn’t a terrible fuel by default. Our policies surrounding it however, make it thus.
I don’t like the subsidy and I don’t like the mandate. However, to bash Ethanol as a concept isn’t appropriate either.
I always laugh at the ones who criticize it because somehow they expect that the first cut we get at this has be the one and only way and thus perfect right away. It isn’t going to happen that way folks.
In terms of availability and infrastructure, not to mention ability to run in vehicles Ethanol’s no worse off than CNG, hydrogen fuel cells or anything else.
There are other ways to make Ethanol other than corn, and that’s where we should be going with it if we continue to explore Ethanol as an alternative.
September 18th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
For those who don’t what HFCS is (from the SF Chronicle): Here is high-fructose corn syrup: It appears the corporate whiners down at the Corn Refiners Association, unhappy with the billions they’ve already made on the staggering rise of their dreadful product and apparently tired of their gunk getting such a bad rap from every doctor and health mag from here to the Mayo Clinic, have launched a sweet little counter-offensive aimed at proving their goop is, well, slightly less evil than you thought.
Here is their cute little commercial: Two generic moms, one pouring her kids a big, fat glass of bright red HFCS-laden pseudo-juice, as the other frowns and says gosh golly Susan, you feed your kids that crap? That has high fructose corn syrup in it!
And the first irresponsible mom just smiles an ‘oh you stupid bitch’ kind of robotic smile and says hey, HFCS is really no worse than sugar, it’s natural because it’s made from corn, and it’s perfectly OK in moderation, so shut the hell up and drink your nauseating food-colored crap, Marjorie (please note: I might be paraphrasing slightly).
Isn’t that lovely? To be fair, they have a meager point. Despite its highly processed nature, HFCS might very well be exactly as bad for you as plain ol’ sugar (by the way, thanks to the wishy-washy FDA, “natural” is a completely bulls–t term that means nothing; calling HFCS “natural” is like calling Cindy McCain natural). But its manufacture is simply awful, from the tons of pesticides used to grow all that needless industrial corn to the ridiculous and devastating farm subsidies that force farmers to grow far more of it than our country can possibly use.
September 19th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Obomber had to vote for the corn bill he is in corn country, if Mccain lived in corn country he would have voted for it too, this is how the good ole boy network works no use getting all worked up about it, no use trying to make a big deal about it, most of what ANY public official says or does is met with 50% approval if they are lucky.
That being said how about rather than bickering and playing the doom and gloom cards suggest usable solutions for problems, anybody can point out whats wrong and whats bad and complain, its bad enough both presidential candidates and running smear campaigns, dont know about you but I want to hear how they will FIX things not point fingers!
Everybody needs to MAN UP, STAND UP and be responsible for their actions.
My solution is to add “NONE OF THE ABOVE” to ALL our nations ballots!
Peace
September 21st, 2008 at 7:28 pm
My 1967 Plymouth Barracuda runs on a mix of E48 -to- E85. AND, it runs better. I spent about $200 to change out parts that i would have changed anyway, but decided on a Gasoline/Ethanol spec. The car now benefits from 105 Octane fuel & NO LONGER smokes. Ethanol isn’t perfect, as I get about 15% less MPG, but the cost almost evens out: My local texaco typically sells E85 for approx 10% less.
My first point is this: If that old rust bucket can run on E85 without problems, then newer vehicles, w/ more robust fuel delivery can do it even better & they often do. Using E85 is a very easy way for motorists to help ween us from petroleum based imported fuel.
My second point is this: If Ethanol production was to hypothetically have an effect on the price of Corn – then make it from something else & make it locally. Indeed, there is a plant in South Georgia going on-line that will make fuel-grade Ethanol from WOOD-WASTE PRODUCTS. Brazil has been making it from Sugar Cane for many years & most of their millions of vehicles are FlexFuel capable.
Go ahead & drill for Oil, but that doesn’t solve our long term fuel needs. Couple that w/ the pollution costs & national security issues, it really makes sense for the USA to phase into other forms of fuel including Ethanol, Hydrogen, CNG, colar, Nuclear, Wind & anything else that benefits our national interest.
Don’t let your hatred of Al Gore stop the development of a lucrative new American industry – There’s money to be made in better fuels.
September 21st, 2008 at 7:38 pm
I also repeat what another post by Dan Gerdes said about ‘Cellulosic Ethanol’ – that is what the Wood Waste Plant is making.
Just think, S.Georgia & Oregon can use Wood Waste, New England uses Maple Syrup, New Mexico uses them nice Habanero peppers & Hawaii uses pineapples. I joke a tad, but I do say that with a lot of seriousness. Just think – locally produced fuel without having to construct pipelines through war zones, or have to pay exorbitant transport costs & tarrifs. Actually, you can legally make a limited amount of Ethanol yourself.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:59 pm
interesting, i’ll be back later
November 8th, 2008 at 11:32 am
For a small time we saw farmers not subsidized by government starting to make money again. Something I had not seen since the 60’s. We saw a build out of rail lines that needed the upgrades. We saw a positive effect in every industry from machine parts to steel to work. The Jeffersonian dream of an Agrarian economy being realized. A quick summer of artificially juiced energy prices and an evil support of Naked Short sales bring this infant industry to the fetal position and the whole thing collapsed. When our representives voted on TARP it is good to see that the money went to short overseas Stocks (VW, TM etc..) and preserve our continuing colapse into a hedge fund/investment bank run economy.
This industry of ethanol from corn and sugar beets will survive – It is just a shame that those who were dumb enough to invest in a stock in this decade will see their dream and investment snapped up by the criminals who have brought this crisis on. Funny how everyone who should know or report this simply doesn’t.
I can not wait to see what the second round of TARP will be used for.
December 1st, 2008 at 6:16 am
Northwest Indiana’s Radio One Communications received two first place awards from the Indiana Broadcasters Association’s 21st Annual Spectrum Awards. The Indiana 105 Dawn Patrol — Steve Zana and Laura Waluszko -n
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