FLAIT

This was published with a few sentences taken out. Here it is, in its entirety.

The toll hikes that John Cichowski discussed ("Toll hikes give you the blues? Try Greenpass" Jan. 11) weren't nearly as infuriating as the bit of information he provided at the end of his column: ethanol cuts gas mileage.

Isn't increasing fuel efficiency and saving gas the main objective here? So what's the point of adding ethanol to our fuel if it wastes gas?

Ethanol was promised to be a cleaner and cheaper alternative to gasoline. But it takes more energy to produce then we get out of it and gas will never cost any less then it does today with ethanol in it. It's also difficult to store and difficult to transport. And with more and more corn being diverted to produce more and more ethanol, prices on milk, cheese, chicken, meat, bread and cereal have increased dramatically.

We get more bang for the buck when we stub our toe.

The industry has said that switchgrass will eventually replace corn as ethanol's main ingredient. But after more then 20 years of broken promises, paid for with billions of dollars of government largesse, who's going to believe that?

Instead of having an intelligent, practical and honest debate on this complicated issue, politicians will continue their blind support of ethanol - pandering to the farm industry, and of course Iowa because of the important role it plays in presidential politics - to ensure that their bribes...ah, I mean campaign contributions keep coming in. And that's what this is all about.

So ethanol is another example of our illustrious leaders doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. The next time they do the right thing for the right reason it'll be the first time.

Feb. 2008 Insert: Ethanol could lead to more greenhouse emissions, here and here.