Marshall takes aim at the biofuel nonsense

I must confess that I have something against “biofuels,” particularly ethanol.  It swallows up more engery to produce than it provides (more than 1.25 BTU to produce 1 BTU worth - Slate).  Thus, its horrendously inefficient, and thus relies on massive government intervention just to be competitive – thus diverting American corn from feeding the world by government fiat.

Case in point: the utterly ridiculous biofuels mandate, which requires that the nation’s fuel use includes an ever increasing biofuel portion.  In Virginia, that’s 9 billion gallons of ethanol, which wipes out 234.9 billion pounds of corn.  Naturally, the price of corn and anything else that requires it (i.e., nearly foodstuff animal raised on the farm, plus milk and eggs) have gone through the roof – and no one seems to notice the government’s hand in literally pushing Americans closer to starvation.

Well, almost no one.  Bob Marshall took aim at the nonsense today (emphasis added):

Del. Bob Marshall is urging Gov. Tim Kaine to petition the federal Environmental Protection Agency for a temporary biofuels waiver in order to cut rising food prices for Virginians, reduce pollution of the Chesapeake Bay, save state budget funds, and help Virginia’s farm and watermen families.

Marshall (R., Manassas), in a letter e-mailed to the governor today (April  9), said “the inflationary federal biofuels mandate,” which requires that 9 billion gallons of ethanol and other biofuels be substituted this year for other types of fuel in Virginia, “has created a food-versus-fuel conflict in our economy.”

Kaine, Marshall wrote in his letter, has authority under the federal 2005 Energy Policy Act and the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act to seek such a temporary waiver if maintaining the  biofuels mandate would “severely harm the economy or environment of a state, a region or the United States.”

“Inflationary prices of food are directly traceable to the diversion of corn from food and feed to fuel, and they affect milk, cheese, other dairy products, beef, cereal, bread and even candy prices,” Marshall, who is seeking the 2008 Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, wrote.

“The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that food prices are at their highest level since 1990, and has doubled the average of the past 10 years.  Milk and eggs have logged double-digit increases in late 2007 and early 2008, with higher prices forecast.”

. . .

Corn and soybean prices have peaked more than double their historic average, Marshall pointed out, and are projected to increase even higher.  High feed costs are “decimating Virginia’s agricultural base of broilers, turkeys, eggs and dairy and beef cattle,” which he wrote “is an important economic engine in many parts of the state, including the Shenandoah Valley.”

This is exactly the sort of special interest government intervention that must be stopped.  This was one of the reasons I came so quickly to support John McCain (who was willing to campaign against ethanol subsidies – in Iowa).  Even though Virginia is hardly the corn-dependent state that Iowa is, it takes a lot of guts to stand up to Archer Daniels Midland and “Big Corn.”  Kudos to Marshall for doing just that.

Cross-posted to Bloggers 4 Bob Marshall