Ethanol keeps spreading the misery

We already know that ethanol subsidies encourage farmers to take their land out of the production of real food, thus raising prices, thus increasing hunger and starvation around the world. Turns out that all these wonderful new ethanol production facilities are a huge drain on scarce water resources:

Some corn-producing regions are already scrapping over dwindling supply. The Journal's Joe Barrett recently reported that Kansas is threatening to sue neighboring Nebraska for consuming more than its share of the Republican River. The Grand Forks Herald reports local opposition to a proposed ethanol plant in Erskine, Minnesota, with anti-refinery yard signs sprouting up and residents concerned about well water. Backers of a proposed plant in Jamestown, North Dakota, recently withdrew their application when it became clear that the plant's million-gallon-a-day appetite would drain too much from a local aquifer. In Wisconsin, new ethanol plants are encountering opposition in Sparta and Milton.

Starvation and thirst seem a high price to pay so politicians (both Dem and GOP, both lib and conservative) can pretend the U.S. has a valid energy policy ($4 per gallon, coming soon) while sucking up to agribusiness industries at the same time.

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