Obama: Feds May Need To Rethink Ethanol

All Candidates Suggest Biofuel Production And Policies Need Retooling As Food Prices Rise

(AP)  Democrat Barack Obama said Sunday the federal government might need to rethink its support for corn ethanol because of rising food prices, a stance similar to Republican John McCain's but at odds with farm states considered important to the November election.

"What I've said is my top priority is making sure people are able to get enough to eat. If it turns out we need to make changes in our ethanol policy to help people get something to eat, that has got to be the step we take," said Obama, D-Ill., on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"We have rising food prices around the United States. In other countries, we're seeing riots because of the lack of food supply, so this is something we're going to have to deal with," he said.

Last week, a group of Republican senators including McCain, R-Ariz., asked the Environmental Protection Agency to loosen congressional mandates to blend more ethanol and other renewable fuels into the gasoline supply, saying they are adding significantly to food costs. The mandates are backed by President Bush and senators representing farm states.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., speaking on ABC's "This Week," agreed the issue needs closer review.

"What we need to do is accelerate the research into farm waste and into other cellulosic plant materials. Because, I think, instead of using the corn, let's figure out if we can use the corn cob," she said. "Let's figure out if we can use the corn stalk. Let's figure out what other kind of food, you know, waste we can use."

Clinton added: "In the short run, we've got to work with our farmers and with like-minded people around the world to figure out how this increasing use in biofuels, which is part of our answer to our dependence on foreign oil, does not undermine food production and really accelerate the prices."

Some top international food scientists last month recommended halting the use of food-based biofuels, such as ethanol, saying it would cut corn prices by 20 percent during a world food crisis.

Corn production in Wisconsin is already expected to dip slightly from last year. Wisconsin farmers said they plan to plant 3.65 million acres of corn this year, down 10 percent from 2007 but the same amount planted in 2006.

Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, has said the ethanol industry is exploring many other possible ethanol feedstocks, including wood chips, switchgrass, citrus waste and garbage.

[pensacola88]

Repealing the $53 cent a gallon import tax imposed on Brazil for their sugar-cane based ethanol would clearly help satisfy our energy needs. Domestic corn-based ethanol suppliers lobbied to impose this tax to stave off competition. This is the type of political lobbying that Barack Obama is against.

Lobbyists have contributed to an economic problem and its'' solution.

[rowdytexan2]

GLOBAL POVERTY ACT..."In addition to seeking to eradicate poverty, that (U.N.) declaration commits nations to banning ''small arms and light weapons'' and ratifying a series of treaties, including the International Criminal Court Treaty, the Kyoto Protocol (global warming treaty), the Convention of Biological Diversity, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention of the Rights of the Child," he said.

Those U.N. protocols would make U.S. law on issues ranging from the 2nd Amendment to energy usage and parental rights all subservient to United Nations whims.

Kincaid also reported Jeffrey Sachs, who runs the "Millennium Project," confirms a U.N. plan to force the U.S. to pay 0.7 percent of GNP would add about $65 billion a year to what the U.S. already donates overseas.

And the only way to raise that funding, Sachs confirms, "is through a global tax, preferably on carbon-emitting fossil fuels," Kincaid writes.

On the forum run by Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, one writer reported estimates of taxes from 35 cents to $1 dollar a gallon on gasoline would be needed.

"This is disgusting, sickening and angers me to the depths of my soul," the forum author wrote. "Obama wants us to support the world. I wonder how they intend to eliminate poverty. Most of the money always winds up in some dictator hands and in the U.N. coffers."

So, Obama wants to commit us to another $.35 to $1.00 in federal gasoline tax! HILARIOUS

[omaar-101]

Note: a 45 yr old man vs. a 72 yr old man...people will not Vote for ...grandpa...no Matter what !!

Thats why McCain wants Hillary''''s A!! oppose to Obama


Total Delegate Count

Polls LIE...Supporters LIE, The Media LIES..But NUmbers Never LIE

Bias People OFTEN LIE...The BIAS MEDIA Often LIES...

But Numbers... NEVER LIE

Until she does pull EVEN or SURPASS Obama, You Hillarites are Blowing Sand out of Your A!!''''''''s !!

Until Clinton EVENS Obama or SURPASSES Obamas Numbers..Hillarys A!! is the LOSER !!!


Democrats | 2,025 Needed to Clinch

OBAMA (1,745)

CLINTON 1,603

EDWARDS 18


Republicans | 1,191 Needed to Clinch
MCCAIN 1,241
HUCKABEE 231
ROMNEY 149

CBS News estimates. Includes super delegates.

[omaar-101]

Note: a 45 yr old man vs. a 72 yr old man...people will not Vote for ...grandpa...no Matter what !!

Thats why McCain wants Hillary''s A!! oppose to Obama


Total Delegate Count

Polls LIE...Supporters LIE, The Media LIES..But NUmbers Never LIE

Bias People OFTEN LIE...The BIAS MEDIA Often LIES...

But Numbers... NEVER LIE

Until she does pull EVEN or SURPASS Obama, You Hillarites are Blowing Sand out of Your A!!''''s !!

Until Clinton EVENS Obama or SURPASSES Obamas Numbers..Hillarys A!! is the LOSER !!!


Democrats | 2,025 Needed to Clinch

OBAMA (1,745)

CLINTON 1,603

EDWARDS 18


Republicans | 1,191 Needed to Clinch
MCCAIN 1,241
HUCKABEE 231
ROMNEY 149

CBS News estimates. Includes super delegates.

[minnick8-2009]

Yes, I do think there is something wrong with starvingi people to pay for cheap transportation. Earlier today I wrote:

I never did think that converting corn to ethanol was a good idea considering food demand world wide. There are alternatives which continue to be ignored. Some other choices might be development of domestic resources such as drilling for our own oil or coal mining in Utah, or better utilization of solar energy, and wind energy, and hydrogen energy and even (dare I say it?) nuclear energy. The fact that we are so dependent on foreigh oil is the fault of the left wing, environmental, Sierra Club, liberals. Back in the 70''''s and 80''''s when they were so successful at killing and squashing all of the proposed fuel development projects, I hoped that one day they would all freeze to death in the dark. Unfortunately, we will probably all freeze to death in the dark.

Hillary''s scientific approach to transportation is.. "instead of using the corn, let''s figure out if we can use the corn cob. Let''s figure out if we can use the corn stalk." Some of us have an immediate suggestion of what can be done with the corn cob, but this being a family channel, we think "stalking" should be against the law. Does anyone else see something wrong in "starving" the peoples of the world to pay for America''s attempt at cheap transportation, while Obama tries to find a place on government property to have a smoke and Hillary tries to find someone without health insurance denied medical care and McCain just tries to make 72 an Alzheimers-free year? We understand the strong emotions surfacing around the Obama/Wright versus Clinton/Clinton versus McCain/Hagee candidacies. We doubt that "unity" will be possible from any quarter, or, in this case, third. Looks like eight more years of "death of a thousand cuts," beginning with Inauguration day minus 13. America loses again. White America, anyway. Is Hee Haw on re-runs anywhere?

[ghostdog8]

IF... Obama wins the nomination, It''s going to be McCain by 60% to 40%. Count on it.

[jbms888]

The big agricultral companies are profiteering again with the corn situation. They surely know that you get about 100 times the energy from sugar cane or sugar beets than corn. The corporations are right up there with the oil companies.

[libh8er]

''Obama: Feds May Need To Rethink Ethanol''

May?? MAY??? That''s an understatement. It costs more to produce than a gallon of gas and solves nothong. Amother ''Wile E Coyote'' like democrat plan falls apart!!!

[minnick8-2009]

I never did think that converting corn to ethanol was a good idea considering food demand world wide. There are alternatives which continue to be ignored. Some other choices might be development of domestic resources such as drilling for our own oil or coal mining in Utah, or better utilization of solar energy, and wind energy, and hydrogen energy and even (dare I say it?) nuclear energy. The fact that we are so dependent on foreigh oil is the fault of the left wing, environmental, Sierra Club, liberals. Back in the 70''s and 80''s when they were so successful at killing and squashing all of the proposed fuel development projects, I hoped that one day they would all freeze to death in the dark. Unfortunately, we will probably all freeze to death in the dark.