The OGJ Oct. 23, 2000, editorial, p. 19, "Ethanol backer bashes oil," observes that the government forgoes federal tax amounting to $0.54/gal to make it possible for ethanol producers to compete with producers of other gasoline additives.
Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., a major processor of agricultural commodities and an ethanol producer, repeatedly tells us in its ads of the immense challenge facing American farmers in feeding the world's expanding population. But how can we square using ethanol made from corn as a gasoline additive when doing so reduces the world's supply of this basic food commodity? The use of grains to make ethanol is an unconscionable misuse of food products that are sorely needed to feed the world's near-starving populations.
The world already regards Americans as profligate in their use of natural resources. Continuing and expanding the use of ethanol simply reinforces the view that Americans are solely interested in their immediate well-being and are without conscience in their willingness to fuel their fat-cat cars and SUVs at the expense of the world's underfed.
An alternative to the government's $0.54/gal largess for ethanol makers would be to use the same economic incentive to discourage operators from abandoning stripper wells and to encourage others to place otherwise submarginal wells on production. This would help offset the decline of domestic production and ease our growing reliance on imported crude.
In short, using potential food stuffs as an energy source makes no sense when we need both the food and the energy.
Thomas S. Wyman
Palo Alto, Calif.
