No need to be shocked and amazed. The issues driving support for ethanol as a renewable resource have little or nothing to do with the way Gopher State Ethanol handled its affairs and operation. The competing views on the effectiveness and economics of ethanol are like red and blue states in the election: divided down the middle.
Many many progressives continue to support ethanol if, for nothing else, as a first step toward switching away from what they believe is the nation's continued addiction to fossil fuels. Moreover, despite information that refutes the claim, many progressive organizations support the rural economic impact for corn and other grain growers (the latter mostly outside Minnesota, which relies almost exclusively on corn-based ethanol). They believe corn-producing family farmers are getting the boost when, in fact Cargill and ADM are eating up the little corn co-ops that initially benefited from ethanol price supports, production subsidies and mandatory proportions for gasoline mixture in passenger vehicles. So, while our experience with the unbelievably manipulative, mismanaged, and truculent GSE in St. Paul pushed us to research and discover the flaws in the entire ethanol ethos, the momentum of the market and the policymakers - state and federal - is with the industry in general, if not sympathetic with their poorly managed cousins in St. Paul. Still, thanks to our local efforts to cease the inner city ethanol operation, all producers in Minnesota and many other states came under fire from an EPA which admitted its error in not detecting the actual pollution dangers inherent in ethanol production until our challenge illuminated the issue. Consent decrees followed after the USEPA noted that refining facilities were polluting at three times the quantity once believed likely. So, for most activists, including the progressive, David Morris, the benefits of using ethanol in motor vehicles outweighs the potential dangers in refining it. They may be wrong, probably are (because the fossil fuels consumed in producing ethanol can offset the savings of its use in gasoline and the carbon reductions at the tailpipe are limited to carbon monoxide, not carbon dioxide, the real killer in the global warming battle), but they're looking down the road at some sort of critical mass for supplanting petroleum-based fuels with grain-based ones, and, perhaps, even hydrogen. That's the argument. Morris has long been an advocate of ethanol. Andy Driscoll Crocus Hill/Ward 2 ------ > From: John Birrenbach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > I am amazed and shocked to see David Morris, of the environmental > group Institute for Local Self Reliance, write a editorial about the > GREATNESS OF ETHANOL. > > I guess he missed the parts about the EPA coming down on the plants > and forcing them to clean up their act. As we in the West End have > found out the hard way, there is no good way to clean up these > places. He must have missed that it was all caused by not only the > plant in St Paul but elsewhere in the nation. > > Yet he spouts "Biorefineries are much smaller than petroleum > refineries, enabling local and famer ownership." I guess he doesn't > know that ADM owns more ethanol plants than all the local co-op owned > refineries together. He continues to spout "We can envision > THOUSANDS of biorefineries dotting the nation's countryside" ..... > "What's not to like?" > > What's not to like? Just look across the river Mr Morris and see > what GSE did to St Paul > > I would love to see the Pioneer Press flooded with letters regarding > Mr Morris's editorial, with frequent mentions of the greatness that > is Gopher State Ethanol. _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
