Couldn't agree with you more, and that's the argument I've been touting
since the gobment started subsidizing ethanol plants. And the numbers WILL
get worse. This year's expected corn production will include corn from an
ADDITIONAL 14,000,000 acres that was not planted to corn last year. A large
majority of these acres will not be prime ag-land acres. They are acres
that were historically planted to alfalfa, grass, left fallow, and are
mainly not irrigated. They will not produce the yields that the prime land
has, and they will require MORE oil to produce corn to turn into ethanol...
so the efficiency of these additional acres will be less than historical
acres.

The congress critters, as well as the news media, continually confuse the
"energy savings, foreign oil dependency" argument with the environmental
argument. The primary markets for ethanol are the formulated gasoline areas
mandated by the EPA. It has NOTHING to do with reducing any dependency on
foreign oil or any kind of energy conservation.

I heard a joke today about a man walking down the street and upon meeting
his friend he said "Joe?! Is that you? They told me you had died!" Joe
says "nope, can't you see for yourself? I'm alive and well!" And Joe's
friend refuses to listen retorts back with "Nope, you just have to be dead,
because the guy that told me runs the funeral home, he's much more of an
expert on dead people than you."

Chris Matthews has a self promoting commercial on MSNBC where they cut to a
snip of him saying "Absolute BS, does anybody check these politicians
anymore?!"

Ethanol vs. foreign oil dependency... not even a fight... not even close to
an argument.... just a talking point pushed onto the American public by
politicians.

Jim
Farmer of several thousand acres of corn.