Editorial: Renewable Fuel Standards Formula For Global Poverty

There was a reason Congress let ethanol subsidies expire. Legislation mandating using corn as fuel will keep prices high. They will also increase poverty worldwide. Anyone remember the "tortilla riots?" The Renewable Fuel Standards Program (RFS) was originally passed as part of the Energy Security Act of 2005. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 expanded the renewable fuel standard for gasoline and the RFS mandates that at least 37% of the 2011-12 corn crop be converted to ethanol and blended with the gasoline that powers our cars. "Producing ethanol for use in motor fuels increases the demand for corn, which ultimately raises the prices that consumers pay for a wide variety of foods at the grocery store, ranging from corn-syrup sweeteners in soft drinks to meat, dairy and poultry products," says the Congressional Budget Office. The RFS program ensures this mandate and ethanol production continues with costs being passed on to consumers at the checkout line and gas pump. The mandate to burn food in our cars places our corn supply at risk to supply disruptions caused by drought and bad weather. Coming off the third-largest corn harvest in U.S. history in 2010, the carryover (unsold corn still in elevators), constituted only a two-week supply, the lowest level since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s...more