Ethanol

Cartoon by Michael Ramirez

I heard David Ridenour interviewed on "On The Edge" (local radio show) on the 24th, and waited to post until the audio clips of the show went up on the website. Ridenour gave a very focused & articulate discussion of why ethanol cannot be the solution to our energy woes. He's from the National Center for Public Policy Research, and you can read a couple of his pieces here ("Ethanol: A Burden on the Poor") and here ("Ethanol: The Fuel to Nowhere").

Also, from the National Center blog, "America: Only Oil-Producing Nation That Severely Limits Its Production."

RELATED: Tim Blair on the profits of GW hysteria.

NOT RELATED: But I'm too time-challenged to make another post: LemurKing's Folly on "Guns and Selected Communist Humor."

GW RELATED: AoSHQ -- "Arctic Ice Receeding Because of Massive Lava-Flow From Undersea Volanoes? "

RELATED: More Tim Blair -- "Vegetation on the March."

RELATED: And excellent -- Jonah Goldberg, "Livin' in a Frosty Paradise?"

A few years back, Jimmy Carter wrote of proposed drilling in ANWR in the New York Times: “The roar alone — of road-building, trucks, drilling and generators — would pollute the wild music of the Arctic and be as out of place there as it would be in the heart of Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon.”

*snip*

Even in summer, people who actually live on the north coast of Alaska, like the residents of Kaktovik (just three miles north of the coastal plain where drilling might take place) overwhelmingly think good jobs in their backyard is music to their ears.

Meanwhile, is the “music” of the Grand Canyon really so pristine? Babies crying, kids chasing lizards, campers laughing, donkeys braying, cars honking: Why does this not trouble the consciences of Carter and McCain?

Perhaps it’s because the analogy between ANWR and the Grand Canyon is spurious on its face. “Pristine,” after all, is not synonymous with beautiful (there are ugly virgins), and “well-trafficked” is not the same as ugly (millions of people have seen the Sistine Chapel).