It's not often I agree with a Venezuelan oil minister, a man no doubt a lackey for dictator and loudmouthed America hater Hugo Chavez.

Said Rafael Ramirez at the International Energy Forum in Rome this week "It is such a bad idea to use foodstuffs for fuel, it is criminal."

I think he's right.

I had my doubts about ethanol from the start, and now as the world grows short of food, I'm more convinced than ever. It's a terrible idea to turn corn into fuel. We're burning food as the world - and our own people - grow hungrier.

This shortsighted idea took root during the Al Gore-inspired frenzy over global warming a few years ago. "Biofuels" were hailed as environmentally safe alternatives to fossil fuels. The idea was immediately embraced by politicians of all stripes who wanted to support "energy independence" from Middle East oil titans, as well as those from the heartland who fell over themselves crafting farm subsidies for the new era of ethanol production. America's ethanol, made from corn, would be mixed at 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gas to create a new, cleaner and cheaper fuel.

Americans bought into the program, without a clue of what it really meant.

Here's what we're doing today.

* Ethanol yields 35 percent less energy than gasoline, so we all get fewer miles to the gallon from our new "blended" gasoline.

* We could use natural gas as a clean alternative for some transportation. In fact, we already do for some fleet autos and buses. Now, instead of using natural gas directly, we use it to make fertilizers for corn, driving up natural gas prices. We then fertilize and harvest the corn to make fuel. Does anybody else see the stupidity of this?

Now we've come to a world where more and more of America's corn is being used for fuel, and more soybean fields are being converted to corn production for ethanol. We're growing less corn for food, and less soybeans for cooking oil.

There are many other reasons why the world is now facing food shortages. China and India are growing, and have a growing appetite for Western-style foods and added rice. There was a terrible drought in Australia that has harmed wheat production. Food price inflation caused by rising energy prices is hurting everyone, especially the poorest of the poor. The world's sad state of affairs is not just about ethanol production.

Suddenly, there is added concern worldwide about the ability of governments in poor nations to feed their citizens, and America will soon become the whipping boy as we are perceived to be turning a blind eye to hunger while we fill up our SUVs with corn ethanol.

There are other places we can turn to for energy, including nuclear energy for a new generation of electric cars, and added wind power. We also still sit on oceans of oil in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico we dare not drill for because we don't want to take on radical environmentalists. So we'll starve the world's poor instead. What a dreadful energy policy.  Source

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