Then again, the ethanol lobby and refiners have a solution to ethanol's failure in America: Hire retired General Wesley Clark as your point man and lobby the government to increase the amount of ethanol in our fuel to 15%. The problems with that proposition are real—unlike ethanol's benefits.

......this is what happens when government ceases to think for itself - legislation considered because incompetent officials swallow all that is spoon-fed to them


First, the primary job of the Environmental Protection Agency is, dare it be said, to protect our environment. Yet using ethanol actually creates more smog than using regular gas, and the EPA's own attorneys had to admit that fact in front of the justices presiding over the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 1995 (API v. EPA).


........any such agency either in the US or indeed here can never be truly independant as they are, and always will, be subject to government influence by stealth - or otherwise


Fourth, forget what biofuels have done to the price of foodstuffs worldwide over the past three years; the science seems to suggest that using ethanol increases global warming emissions over the use of straight gasoline. Just these issues should have kept ethanol from being brought back for its fourth run in American history.

.........the natural consequence of trendy government - leading to decisions being made on the back of popular and sometimes unwarranted pressure

Text highlights courtesy of Business Week