May 5
Obama on ethanol
By Denise Ross
John Thune isn’t the only prominent South Dakotan backing a presidential candidate who does not love ethanol.
Sunday on Meet the Press, Barack Obama said:
(T)here’re a whole host of reasons why we’re seeing problems with food supply. There’s no doubt that biofuels may be contributing to it. And what I’ve said is, my top priority is making sure that people are able to get enough to eat. And 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.
Obama is not nearly as hostile as John McCain is, but given that Tom Daschle, early promoter of gas-ohol, is practically the architect of the nation’s ethanol policy, one must wonder how those conversations go. Daschle has strong pragmatist tendancies, so I’m guessing he would bend if it made political sense.
Read the transcript section in question on the jump, where Obama also calls ethanol “an important tool” in America’s energy policy and where you also can see video of Obama talking about suspending the gas tax.
Read the full transcript here.
TRANSCRIPT SECTION ON ETHANOL:
MR. RUSSERT: Ethanol, very important to your state, very important to, to Iowa. Here’s the reports on that. “Across the country, ethanol plants are swallowing more and more of the nation’s corn crop. This year, about a quarter of U.S. corn will go to feeding ethanol plants instead of poultry or livestock. That has helped farmers … but it’s boosted demand–and prices–for corn at the same time global grain demand is growing. …
“Legislation providing for ethanol subsidies is being criticized for making food more expensive while gasoline prices continue to climb. Rick Perry,” the governor of Texas, “has asked the EPA to waive half of the `misguided’ ethanol requirements because of rising food costs.”
SEN. OBAMA: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: Would you be willing to change ethanol subsidies or suspend some of these requirements so that people are not using corn for ethanol, but using corn for food and lowering food prices.
SEN. OBAMA: Well, look, we, we’ve got a serious food problem around the world. We, we’ve got rising food prices here in the United States. In other countries we’re seeing riots because of, because of the lack of food supplies. So this is something that we’re going to have to deal with. There are a number of factors that go into this. Changes in climate are contributing. The, the fact that in a lot of countries, you know, we’ve had problems getting food supplies to poor countries because the wealthier countries have reduced their stockpiles in, in serious ways. And so there’re a whole host of reasons why we’re seeing problems with food supply. There’s no doubt that biofuels may be contributing to it. And what I’ve said is, my top priority is making sure that people are able to get enough to eat. And 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.
But I also believe that ethanol has been a important transitional tool for us to start dealing with our long-term energy crisis ultimately. Over time we’re going to shift to cellulosic ethanol, where we’re not using food stocks but we’re using wood chips, we’re using, you know, prairie grass, we’re using other stuff for this.
4 Comments so far
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I think a lot of this controversy lies in one little misconception…
“This year, about a quarter of U.S. corn will go to feeding ethanol plants instead of poultry or livestock.”
It seems that most people don’t realize that one major byproduct of ethanol production is distiller’s grains. This is high-protein animal feed. If we got past the idea that a quarter of our corn supply is “feeding ethanol plants instead of… livestock” maybe people would realize that ethanol production isn’t the major cause of rising food prices.
I just got to say that Obama is a little wrong on this. Russert says it himself “That has helped farmers … but it’s boosted demand–and prices–for corn at the same time global grain demand is growing.”
It is grain and rice demand that are growing. Corn prices have an impact sure. But the food crisis that is erupting across the world is more a direct result of high fuel prices than ethanol production.
Obama at least realizes this. McCain just wants to cut ethanol completely. He doesn’t understand that ethanol is important not just because of the impact it has on family farms, but it also drives innovations so we can use other bio-fuels later. Cellulose being a key example here, which Obama is quick to note.
McCain is just in the pocket of the oil companies, (oh wait he’s a maverick I forgot) which is demonstrated by his ludicrous gas tax holiday. Which the oil companies will end up pocketing the difference due to increased demand while our roads and bridges lose badly needed funding
McCain would have us continue a disastrous war for oil and not innovate so as to ween us off our oil addiction. Obama grasps the future much better
One aspect of this that hasn’t been mentioned much is that with the high demand for corn for ethanol, farm land that would have been used for other crops is now being used to produce corn. I’m sure that has an effect on the cost and availability of other food products.
Michael - I hear this a lot, but we’ve all seen the giant mountains of corn that pile up all over the Midwest. So we’ve been growing way more corn than we need. Does anyone have any data to show the number of acres converted from other crops to corn since prices have been up? If this data were out there, it seems to me we’d be hearing the talking heads quoting it on the cable news. I haven’t heard it so far. I remain skeptical. -Denise
It’s amusing to see Obama finally getting called out on this. The US ethanol policy is a sham and a disgrace. I have nothing against ethanol itself, but I don’t support the two-step of subsidizing its production while imposing tariffs on ethanol produced elsewhere (mostly in Brazil). These policies are distorting behavior and directing too much effort into an avenue that will never play a significant role in our energy picture.
What’s the upper limit on how much petroleum could be replaced by corn ethanol? Be honest. And subsidizing corn ethanol does nothing to help develop other forms of ethanol production.
On this, McCain is the sane person in the room and Obama is just a pandering lightweight, completely out of his depth and just starting to realize that he won’t be able to get by with a resolute look and a stirring (though substance-free) speech. He’ll have to actually display resolve.
It’s not encouraging the prospect of him lining up meetings with Chavez, Ahmadenijad, Castro et al in his first year as he’s promised to do. It’s even less encouraging that despite all of his “wise old men” advisors’ pointing out that his promise to do so was a gaffe, he can’t admit that and just move on and come back from that ridiculous promise.