Here is a great editorial by Mark Bennett of the Terre Haute (Ind) Tribune-Star.

Basically, he summarizes all of the criticisms being thrown at ethanol and says that, as a matter of national security, he’d still rather pay for a home-grown fuel than subsidize Middle Eastern countries.

If self-serving interests in farm states such as Iowa, Nebraska and Indiana drive up the price of corn and, thus, ethanol, we’re not likely to end up in an armed conflict. No amount of economic inefficiency offsets that price.

Bennett also points out the “hidden costs” of sticking with oil because it is “cheaper.”

Americans pay beyond the pump price for gasoline. Those added costs include the human and financial toll from military conflicts, as well as the expense of having to guard international shipping routes, not to mention directly and indirectly subsidizing unsavory governments controlling oil-producing countries.

Many more good points in his op-ed piece - a very good read.

Some Domestic Fuel readers may criticize us for not being more “balanced” in our coverage of mainly ethanol news - in other words, not reporting all the negative stuff. There’s plenty of that out there. We believe strongly that ethanol is part of the solution - not all, just part - and we are not going to criticize it or any other potential solutions to making our country more energy independent.

Truth About Trade & Technology has posted a Wall Street Journal commentary on the tortilla crisis in Mexico. The op-ed piece contends that the “cause of the corn price spike is too much government intervention.”

The sharp increase in Mexican corn prices, which fueled the tortilla price spike, followed big price increases for corn on international markets over the past year. The main cause, according to most commodity analysts, was the U.S. decision to subsidize ethanol made from corn. Growers who previously marketed their harvests to food and livestock companies suddenly have new demand from ethanol producers, who are also armed with a subsidy to make their bids more attractive. The increase in demand from government-subsidized ethanol producers pushed up prices.

Yet the U.S. isn’t the only government that is distorting markets. Mexico’s quota system for corn imports has exacerbated the problem.

Read the whole commentary.

Crisis prognosticator Dr. Lester Brown has gotten some ink lately with his predictions of how ethanol production is going to lead to world starvation.

National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman has a good analysis of Brown’s numbers in a recent NCGA “Our View.” He refutes Brown’s assertion that “the grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol could feed one person for a year,” especially by noting that he does not account for the distillers grains that are a by-product of ethanol production and fed to livestock.

And then there is this paragraph:

Brown also suggests, “As the price of oil climbs, so will the price of food.” I wish that he could talk with the farmers around the United States that are still getting less than $2 a bushel for their corn. Not even taking inflation into account, the prices paid to farmers today for corn are in many cases less than they were 30 years ago. Meanwhile, oil prices have more than doubled in the past three years. At the beginning of 2004, oil traded for $34 per barrel. As of August 23, 2006, the price was $72 per barrel.

Well noted. Farmers as a breed are among the hardest working, least appreciated laborers in this nation and I get tired of people who infer they are corporate fat cats who live on government subsidies while abusing our natural resources. Nothing could be further from the truth. They work harder than the majority of us who sit in air conditioned offices in the summer while they are sweating out the weather which determines what kind of crop they will produce, and watch the markets which determine what kind of price they will get. Meanwhile, we reap the benefits of the most wholesome, abundant and affordable food supply in the world. Given half a chance, I’ll bet we could produce an abundant and affordable energy supply as well.