Worse, ethanol is not being sold to us because it will make America energy independent. It is being forced on the nation, even with all the problems that have already become apparent, because the party in power is locking in the lobbyist monies and farm state votes. And that’s not just my opinion; it’s also the opinion of David G. Victor, director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford and an adjunct senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, as published in the Houston Chronicle on April 15 of this year.
In fact, the corruption of our legislative body is so pervasive that, when Reuters Business discussed how we could immediately get more ethanol just by dropping the 54-cents-per-gallon import tax on Brazil’s ethanol, the person quoted as saying that “Congress has a backlog of important bills” and “won’t have time in this legislative year to deal with controversial legislation” (such as reducing tariffs on ethanol from Brazil), was nobody we elected. No, it was Jon Doggett, vice president of the National Corn Growers Association. Now tell me: Who is really calling the shots?