Articles on ethanol, energy bill

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Sen. Mike Johanns (R., Neb.) have articles of interest appearing in newspapers this week.

First up is Grassley, who wrote "Ethanol was green before green was cool" for The Hill. It appeared in yesterday's edition.

In it, Grassley talks about indirect land use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Here are a good few lines:

The EPA’s models conclude that international land use changes contribute more in greenhouse gases than the entire direct emissions of ethanol production and use — from growing the crop, the production of ethanol at the refinery, to the tailpipe emissions when it’s burned.

This conclusion is ludicrous.

A lot of scientists would agree (see this and this, for starters).

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In his piece in the Omaha World Herald, "Energy bill scary for ag industry", Johanns discusses climate legislation under debate in D.C. - aka "cap and trade". It appears in today's edition.

Here are a few lines:

The bill’s proponents assert that cap-and-trade would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by raising carbon-based energy costs. This much was confirmed nearly verbatim in a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Yet that train of thought is incomplete.

Let me finish it: Those rising energy costs would come back down hard on Nebraska consumers. Every study I’ve seen indicates that agricultural producers — who consume large amounts of energy — would be hit hardest.