Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol

Until recently, the domestic ethanol industry had a huge friend in Sen. Barack Obama – and it still might, although he's now adding a caveat to his support of the biofuel.

"If it turns out that we've got to make changes in our ethanol policy to help people get something to eat, then that's got to be the step we take," he said last month in reply to some fairly jagged questions posed by the late Tim Russert.

It seems out of character that the bright senator would be slow to grasp the affect ethanol subsidies have had recently on global food prices: The more corn was removed from the food chain to make ethanol, the less of it there was to eat and to feed livestock, so the price of food rose.

Supply and demand. Simple economics, really.

Then there's the well-publicized case of acreage previously given to other food crops being converted to corn for ethanol, contributing to price hikes for non-corn foodstuffs.

And, of course, the huge run-up in corn prices increases the costs of corn-based foods such as breads and cereals and of meat products from animals, such as hogs, chickens and cattle, that are fed on corn.

Also very much in the news recently: The environmental concerns of taking "raw" land out of its natural state, cutting down trees, removing brush -- to make room for corn.

Not only does that behavior wipeout the wildlife that relied upon the natural vegatation -- a single rainforest tree can support thousands of living things -- but studies have shown that it increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by decreasing amount of greenery that would naturally have scrubbed it. Carbon dioxide is the worst of the greenhouse gases.

None of these heavily reported consequences should be unknown to Obama. So what's up with the senator?

A story in today's New York Times might -- might --  hold the answer. It seems that the politician who running as a reformer seeking to reduce the influence of special interests has surrounded himself with advisers and supporters with close ties to the domestic ethanol industry.

Scott Doggett, Contributor

Posted by

Scott Doggett June 23, 2008, 2:15 PM

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Biofuels, Emissions, Ethanol, Fuel Economy, Legislation