Nobel laureate Al Gore said this weekend that tax breaks for corn-based ethanol are "not good policy" and that he only supported these subsidies in order to assist his eventual run for president.
Reuters Africa reported Monday the former Vice President made these comments while speaking to a green energy conference in Athens.
"It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first generation ethanol," said Gore.
According to the International Energy Industry, such subsidies totaled $7.7 billion last year. Yet Gore now thinks this was a mistake.
"The energy conversion ratios are at best very small. It's hard once such a program is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going," he said.
Readers are reminded that Gore was the tie-breaking vote in the Senate mandating the use of ethanol in 1994.
So why did the man media view as one of the world's foremost environmentalists support such a program?
"One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president."
What a saint.
So more than ten years ago, Gore supported an expensive, "not good policy" because he thought it would help him get elected president.
Yet media don't believe he'd misrepresent the threat of manmade global warming in order to become extremely rich.
The bigger question is whether or not this matter will get any attention here in America, or if the Gore-loving media will choose to ignore this stunning revelation.
Stay tuned.
