The Ethanol Disaster

If readers want to see how a facile solution can go wrong, they need look no further than George W. Bush's ethanol mandate. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires that a percentage of the fuel sold in the United States be made from corn-based ethanol. Critics say this use of corn is resulting in higher prices and tragic shortages in the poorest countries. It is estimated that one person could eat for 365 days on the corn used to make enough ethanol to fill an SUV tank.