Why corn ethanol is like chewing tobacco

Writing over at The Big Money, Dan Mitchell has coined a great new way for people who don't think corn-based ethanol is a good idea to express their dislike:

calling corn ethanol a superior alternative is like saying it's better to chew tobacco than it is to smoke cigarettes-marginally true, but beside the point, and disingenuous in the extreme.

Mitchell says that the ethanol industry is kind of at the end of its rope, "begging" lawmakers for more cash and a bigger mandate (true) "because there's still no natural market for their product."

In the wake of the Gulf oil spill, the ethanol industry saw an opportunity to promote its product and took action. For example, they put up signs that said, "No beaches have been closed due to ethanol spills." Well, if a cleaner environment is the standard, then there are better options than ethanol, too. As Mitchell points out, fertilizer run-off from the Midwest (used to grow the corn) has "been befouling the Gulf for years before the oil leak." So, they might want to be careful with that clean Gulf slogan.

source: green.autoblog