Corn: Source of Food or Vile Gas Replacement?

I was picking on carbon emissions a while back.  Pirate’s Cove (go check him out) picks up the story from some more recent news, believe from a WSJ article.

WSJ says:

The Obama administration on Tuesday will step up efforts to increase the availability of ethanol at filling stations and to speed up subsidies to struggling biofuel producers. But the trade-off is that the administration is also expected to propose a rule that could make certain biofuels look less climate-friendly.

BUT:

But at the same time, the EPA is expected to propose measuring the greenhouse-gas emissions associated with biofuel production — including emissions that result overseas when farmers world-wide respond to higher food prices by converting forest and grassland to cropland. The EPA decision could undercut the environmental rationale the ethanol industry has used to sustain support for its government subsidies.

The Teach Says:

Ethanol is a nice idea, which, like so many pulled from a unicorn’s butt to combat the made up issue of anthropogenic global warming, never seems to be thought out. Or be viable. Cost effective. Sustainable. Worthwhile. Add your own descriptor.

I’m a little more rosy on ethanol than that.  Well, if it’s made from a faster-growing and less-expensive crop, like sugar cane.  I’m also big on bio-diesel, though I’d like to see it done in mass scale before I get really excited.

What I still don’t get is the complete lack of interest in oil shale.  Canada seems to be doing well with it, but where’s the company trying to free up the huge US reserves?  I’ll say that I’m seriously bothered that we seem to be content to get much our energy from people who really don’t like us a whole lot.  I’m even more seriously bothered that not many others seem to be equally bothered.  If that made sense…

Gas is going back well above $3 this summer, I can feel it.

Updated 5/6: Good news from Gordon Durand at Zeta Woof… there’s stuff out there we can find, it’s mostly a matter of being allowed to explore and find it.  Then getting the refinery capacity.  Then not getting taxed to death on it…