Pigs are Flying

I meant to post this before I left, but here it is now:

Rick Perry (governor of Texas) petitioned the EPA for a waiver on the amount of ethanol in gasoline (9 billion gallons are required in 2009).

His argument was that it was hard on feed lots (boo on them!) because it was pushing up the price of corn. Well, it's not just hard on feed lots, but on anything else that involves corn, including tortillas. The high price of corn has driven up the price of tortillas in Mexico, a staple food, especially among the poor, who get 40% of their protein from tortillas.

Turning corn into ethanol is also bad for the environment, as it only produces 1.3 times as much energy as is used to grow the corn, turn it into ethanol, and transport it (which must be done by truck). In the meantime, huge amounts of chemicals are used to produce the corn (pesticides, fertilizers) and instead of growing a food crop, we are devoting more and more land to growing... fuel. That's messed up.

The tide has been turning against ethanol for a while (note some of my sources, which are a year old). It just doesn't make sense, and isn't really a viable solution to our dependence on fossil fuel. We can't possibly grow enough corn to not have to rely on imported oil, and making ethanol from corn is not helping the environment. So.... doesn't help the environment, doesn't help the economy (here or in the rest of the world), doesn't solve the oil problem. Why require it?

So, when Rick Perry asked for a waiver from the EPA, I actually agreed with him. And then the EPA turned him down.

Clearly, pigs are flying. I'm siding with Rick Perry and against the EPA.

OMG.