May 27

The chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee told members of the Cleveland City Club that the rush to produce food-based fuel is a faulty energy policy that is contributing to worldwide hunger and international unrest.

Numerous studies and recent news articles have faulted the conversion to fuel production of farmlands and foods that were previously used for human consumption, Rep. Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., told members of the City Club audience on May 23. The change is exacerbating rising food prices and shortages, he said.

"Corn-based ethanol has helped to create a food-versus-fuel dilemma," Rahall said. "Although this notable ethanol drawback has been playing out most dramatically in foreign lands – largely developing nations, where the margin between survival and starvation is slimmest – it is also showing up, ominously, in the shopping carts of American working families. And it is coming at a most inopportune time, when our economy is badly faltering."

In addition, claims about the environmental benefits of ethanol production are now being revisited, Rahall said, citing studies by Princeton University, and the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy, which have found increased greenhouse gas emissions resulting from ethanol production, as well as a loss of forests and grasslands that have served as carbon sinks.

"The rush into ethanol has been a serious misstep. We had better look carefully before we leap again," Rahall said.

The City Club has been a long-running forum for speakers that have included Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Dick Cheney, Madeleine Albright, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sandra Day O’Connor and Douglas MacArthur.

Contact Waste News reporter Bruce Geiselman at (330) 865-6172 or bgeiselman@crain.com

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