Common Sense For Utah

Your government is subsidizing corn ethanol production. The net effect of this is:

• Your gas costs more

Ethanol is more expensive than regular gasoline and it doesn’t burn as well. That means you get less MPG so you fill up more often.

• Your food costs more

Corn is now in high demand. Corn is a staple food used for animal feed and is in nearly every food you buy. If it’s more expensive to feed cows then milk and beef go up in price. The most common sweetener is high fructose corn syrup so everything that uses it has gone up in price.

• You get to pay higher taxes

Utah taxes food by a percentage so if the food costs more then the taxes are higher. And since ethanol is not a cost effective replacement for gasoline, the ethanol industry is heavily subsidized. Without the subsidy the ethanol producers would not make money. Eventually all this extra cash ends up in the pocket of some Archer-Daniels-Midland executive.

• It doesn’t actually save the earth by being “green”

Corn ethanol production is a net loss for the environment because you end up clearing forests to plant more corn to make more ethanol so your boondoggle will pay off.

• It won’t make us energy independent

If we plow up all the land in the USA for corn we will only meet @10%-15% of our total needs. Assuming they don’t increase from all the extra agricultural activity.

After they pass this legislation, they stand around for photo ops congratulating themselves on how well they’ve screwed over the average Joe. Don’t forget, the Democrats own Congress right now but George Bush owns the Democrats.