The BBC has an article today about high grain prices.  No mention of ethanol or the lousy weather in China (and by lousy, I mean cold, not hot).

 They seem to be entirely confounded by the high prices.

Looks like this growing season is lost.

Pull the subsidies, and let the market decide whether we need food or transportation.

♣ a seal

The "liberal" environmentalists, just as the "liberal" peaceniks and the global warming crowd, will lead us down the road to destruction. That's the ultimate irony.  All their "progressive", "forward-looking" ideas have a down side because they too often care not for the common good, but rather only for their ideology. Moreover, it's the few, like Algore, who gain from all of this, not the many.

NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"

I hate to say I told 'em so (actually, I'll be pleased to say it) - but once "they" really catch on what the actual real cost to society will be because of this "Gore" induced madness, the rush to ethanol, "they" will suddenly be all too willing to blame the entire disaster on none other than President George Bush.

This will play out as did the genetically modified foods issue. Bill Clinton brought it into the 21st century. His agri-corp marriage was of little concern to the MSM. The leftist groups, here and abroad were mad as hell at Bill Clinton and the US for it (not reported by the MSM). However, as soon as Bush came in, the left (including Bill Moyers, National Geographic) started blaming all that Clinton had done on Bush.

The media did the same with Clinton's Plan Colombia, by the way. Interesting, that the topic of Plan Colombia has not come up during this current Colombia trade bill discussion - but that's to protect Clinton.

On the ethanol story, the evidence the left and the MSM will trumpet will be the agri-corp connections to the Bush administration. Never mind that they are much the same as Clinton before, and that the real impetus for the Bush Administration supporting more ethanol production is driven by the theology of the Goreacle and his moonies, and immense pressure exerted on the Bush administration to do that which the MSM wants done.

Mark my word - Bush will be blamed for the financial impact, the starvation, and any potential civil unrest caused by this pending crisis. Actually, it's already started; some have been spitting anger at Bush over this for a few years now. Their basis for the spin lies in the fact that some of the true enviromentalists out there did not and will not buy into the ethanol story - they understand that it has serious shortfalls. The angry left will eventually come back to this truth, but will seek to blame Bush for it all.

Some years ago I was visiting Bezerkely CA. A Mecedes diesel car was double-parked, idling and unoccupied, but it did bear a bumper sticker that read 'No War for Oil'. Subsequently, I have noted bumper stickers which cry  'No Food for Fuel'. Well, which is it?

We are in a state of total war at this point, though too few people appreciate the fact. If the price of Mideast oil goes too high, we Americans will put corn in our gas tanks and the oil producers can feed their populations with asphalt, I guess.

Energy equals food. No oil equals no food to feed our enemies. Our enemies without food equals a good thing. There is a moral equivalent to petroleum, food, and energy produced from agricultural products such as corn. I do think that the ethanol subsidies are a rip-off to the American tax-payor, but if our enemies are paying more for food because of the subsidies, I'm willing to be more tolerant.

For those who wish me dead, I don't care if they can feed their children, who are probably being taught to wish me dead, too. Actually, I hope that they can't have children. Color me heartless, I guess.

Gotta go, I'm driving to a  restaurant for dinner.

The real lie here is that there is a "demand" for so-called "alternative fuel". This phony "demand" is based on a subsidized price, and if it were priced by the market, that "demand" would evaporate, along with the premium we are paying to have it added to our gasoline.

...instantly.

Friedman is partially correct in that high gas prices will push many auto buyers to demand and purchase more fuel efficient vehicles.

But how often does one change vehicles? High gas prices have only been with us a few months.

The food shortages caused by increased bio-fuel production have been forecast and debated for a long time now. No big surprise.

My question is, when are auto and truck drivers going to get off their complacent bottoms and wrestle control of U.S. energy policy from the hands of nit-wit environmentalists and DEMAND from their representatives in Washington that we exploit the huge reserves of oil and natural gas (and uranium) that we have within our own borders?

It is total lunacy blaming energy companies for the high price of oil, which is determined on the international market, while refusing to harvest the huge resources sitting right at our feet!

Whats ironic is that the envirowackos that hate the oil companies so much are also to blame for their huge profits. If we were allowed to drill in ANWR and the supposed multi-billion barrels of shale found in North Dakota, the price of oil would drop and the "massive windfall profits" wouldnt exist.

will increase substantially this year now that the price has risen to $6/bushel.  Years ago, the govt. began a CRP program that actually paid farmers NOT to grow any crops on their land.  Now that grain prices have increased to the point where farmers can actually make a profit, they're pulling out of the CRP program and once again planning to plant every available acre to cash crops such as corn and soybeans. 

 PS Sen Schumer...ethanol cannot be transported by pipeline, it can only be trucked.