More Corn?

BestView has mentioned this before, but the move to corn as a replacement for oil-based gasoline is a really bad idea. Support was recently provided by the World Resources Institute which confirms that corn production will lead to ground water depletion, soil erosion, and algae blooms in our water ways. This will be caused by the wide-spread use of pesticide and fertilizer. It takes 4,000 gallons of water per acre per day to replace evaporation in a corn field.Each acre requires about 130 pounds of nitrogen and 55 pounds of phosphorus. When we get the corn, it then must be refined into a product that produces 20-30% less energy than gasoline and it must be transported around the country by truck since it doesn't do pipelines well. And, of course, our food costs are driven up by the elevated prices of corn which is fed to cattle and chickens and hogs.

The move to corn is largely due to the fact that Iowa is the first primary state and both parties are electoral whores. If we really wanted to improve our energy independence we would expand our existing oil capacity like in Alaska where the dems are obstructing and off the coast of Florida where the Republicans have a block. Not a pretty situation.