Hungry Like The Ethanol Wolf

From the Editors on Ethanol on The National Review Online:

The federal government can do something right now to provide relief to Americans facing higher food prices: Repeal the ethanol mandate.

The diversion of one-third of the American corn crop into ethanol production is a direct result of the 2005 law that required gasoline makers to buy 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol — a mandate that the 2007 energy bill President Bush signed in December increases to 36 billion gallons by 2022.We realize that a repeal is highly unlikely, given that the machinery of government is currently calibrated to move in the opposite direction on biofuels, but as food prices keep going up, pro-ethanol politicians will find it increasingly difficult to justify their position. Food riots in developing countries are becoming more frequent. Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club has started limiting sales of rice because immigrants are buying all the rice they can and sending it to relatives in countries suffering from food shortages. In the U.S., the Labor Department reported this month that the price of bread is up 14.7 percent from last year. Milk prices are up 13.3 percent.

More insight from the article in the National Review:

* Congress has created an artificial demand for ethanol to satisfy the farm lobby, which is one of the most powerful in Washington.

* John McCain somehow made it through the early primary gauntlet without going back on his long-held opposition to ethanol subsidies. To be sure, he took a lower profile on the issue and made some comments about how ethanol "makes sense" now that oil prices are so high, but when questioned about these pro-ethanol comments he reiterated his opposition to the federal government’s meddling in the market.