The Iowa State Fair Political Pig Trough

Political swine of all persuasions are descending upon the Iowa State Fair to pitch their wares to the "real people."


The Des Moines Register
http://www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060814/NEWS/60814009/1001
has more on Indiana Senator Evan Bayh promoting his plan to increase the use of renewable fuels.

"We can produce America’s fuel right here in the Midwest – in Iowa and Indiana – relying on our farmers rather than Middle Eastern sheiks,” Bayh told a group of local and national reporters gathered in front of the cattle barn.

Speaking of bullshit, it might make more sense to make fuel from cow patties since most of the grain grown in this region is being used to raise cattle to satisfy our increasing demand for beef.

While ethanol fuel production for use in flex-fuel vehicles sounds like a positive step, that's all it is.... a step, and not a very effective one. This is not going to solve our dependency nor is it a "green" alternative given the amount of water necessary to grow these crops -- you cannot always count on rains in the midwest.

These presidential aspirants will have to get a little more realistic about our energy independence to convince me they are serious about this problem. Waltzing into Iowa with a boner for the farmers' corncobs isn't enough.

Say Anything has an interesting post on the topic with more links. Here's an excerpt:

Personally, I don't have any real bias toward ethanol. If it were legitimately cheaper to run my car on ethanol I'd use it. The problem is that ethanol isn't cheaper. It's less efficient and more expensive. And even when the government "buys down" the price of ethanol by handing out tax breaks and incentives it is still more expensive because we Americans have to pay those tax breaks anyway.