Ethanol faces increasing attacks

As corn is increasingly diverted from the grocery store to the ethanol plant, the biofuels craze - turning plant matter into fuel - has attracted plenty of vocal critics, from South American officials decrying the skyrocketing price of corn tortillas to a United Nations official who recently classified biofuel production as a “crime against humanity.”

While most people don’t equate the fermentation process used to turn corn into fuel with a high crime, more than a few economists and scientists are embroiled in a debate over the impact of corn-based ethanol production on everything from fuel supplies to crop prices to greenhouse gas emissions to construction costs.

Whether ethanol-blended gasoline is actually a cost saver for American consumers is up for debate, as is the effect of diverting massive quantities of corn into fuel on consumer food prices and other non-fuel products. But lawmakers may be willing to sidestep a major debate on the efficiency of ethanol if oil prices hit the $100 a barrel milestone in the coming days, as they are expected to. Soaring oil prices have already trickled down to consumers now paying $3 a gallon at the pump and this could lead Democratic lawmakers to throw renewed support behind a ramped up ethanol policy ahead of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays - key driving periods for US motorists... (full article) (Marketwatch)