Ethanol Comes a Cropper

The NY Times has wandered into the heartland again, this time roughing it roughly midway between Minneapolis and Madison, with the quaint headline as the story continues on the inside pages, "Ethanol Distilleries Hit Resistance in Farm Belt".

Makes it sound like we're drinking it out here and Carrie Nation has risen up again. But no, the opposition includes a self-described "ordinary soccer mom". Dateline Sparta, Wisconsin, just off I-90.

And if only to loosen the chokehold Iowa and its caucuses have on farm policy, the Times makes a few fair points (emphasis mine):

These people are farmers. Or they know a farmer. Or their grandfather was a farmer and, as in so many farm families, ethanol has meant new hope for the fading towns built on corn fields. The biggest complaints are cousins of the gripes brought about by proposed paper mills, landfills, prisons and the like: an increase in noise, traffic, odor, emissions and demand on the water system.

You may recall Congress mandated an increase in ethanol, and gave out subsidies, both parties handing out corporate welfare. Here are the results around the Midwest:

The local strife coincides with what is already a moment of tumult for the ethanol industry. In recent months, an enormous supply of ethanol has glutted the market, sinking its price and sending a chill through the ethanol boom.

(Eat it, ADM)

In October, the owners of at least one long-running plant — one that opened in 1983 in Grafton, N.D., and made 10.5 million gallons a year — announced it would shut down for now, thanks to market forces.

Market forces, what a concept. And food prices are up. Fertilizer for corn is petroleum-based don't you know. And hmm...quote from said soccer mom:

“But I was shocked by what I heard,” she said. “They don’t want it here either. Farmers have been in the business for hundreds of years and what they told me is that they don’t have a limitless supply of water to produce more corn anyway. This isn’t as pretty a picture as everyone wants to make it out to be.”

Eyesores on the landscape, sucking up water, big hurt in the wallet. Ethanol is pure political idiocy--let's hope it comes a cropper.

Related posts: Hot Air in the Second City, (should have said Windy City, but can't always be a pundit), Farm Facts, Energy 101