Kunne man i det mindste ikke forvente at nogen blot nævner sammenhængen med klimapolitik? Nej, det ser ikke ud til det. Det er benhårdt, downright uretfærdigt, hvis vi selv skal til at betale for omkostningerne af vores godhed overfor - ikke bare miljøet - men selveste klimaet.
Wall Street Opinion Journal kommenterede emnet i en kommentar tilbage i januar.
Et par uddrag:
Reaching the President's target of 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels by 2017 would, at present corn yields, require the entire U.S. corn harvest.
No wonder, then, that the price of corn rose nearly 80% in 2006 alone. (See the chart nearby.) Corn growers and their Congressmen love this, and naturally they are planting as much as they can. Look for a cornfield in your neighborhood soon. Yet for those of us who like our corn flakes in the morning, the higher price isn't such good news. It's even worse for cattle, poultry and hog farmers trying to adjust to suddenly exorbitant prices for feed corn--to pick just one industry example. The price of corn is making America's meat-packing industries, which are major exporters, less competitive.
In Mexico, the price of corn tortillas--the dietary staple of the country's poorest--has risen by about 30% in recent months, leading to widespread protests and price controls. In China, the government has put a halt to ethanol-plant construction for the threat it poses to the country's food security.
...
We'd be as happy as anyone if DuPont researchers finally discover the enzyme that can efficiently break down plants into starch, but betting billions of tax dollars and millions of acres of farmland on this hope strikes us as bad policy. If cellulose is going to be an energy miracle--an agricultural cold fusion--far better to let the market figure that out.
...
Sooner or later, our experience with this huge public gamble may make us yearn for the efficiency, capacity, lower cost and--yes--superior environmental record of "Big Oil."
Tag nu ansvar, folkens. Det er ikke bagerens skyld. Og hvis han øjner en chance for at tjene flere penge, så er det kortvarigt, fordi alle kan sælge brød, og så skal den ekstra profit nok hurtigt blive konkurreret væk. Og hvis ikke, ja så er vi selv ude om det.
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar