By Rick Perry, The Governor of Texas
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 12, 2008. Page A21
NOTE: Below are only excerpts, but you can read the whole article by clicking the link above.
"At what price will corn be so expensive that the federal government will decide that it is time to stop driving up the price of food?
Three years ago, Congress imposed a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate that has forced the gasoline industry to mix massive amounts of corn-based ethanol into the nation's fuel supply. In 2007, Congress nearly doubled that mandate to require nine billion gallons of ethanol be blended into gas in 2008 and even more in 2009."
"As we can see now, the diversion of our corn supply from grocery stores to gasoline pumps has caused the price of corn to spiral out of control. Corn prices were once driven by market forces. Today they are artificially driven up by a government mandate. In 2004, before the mandates were imposed, the cost of corn hovered around $2 per bushel. Now it is close to $8 per bushel.
This is driving up the cost of staple food items at the grocery store. And it is also driving up the price of corn-based feed, devastating the livestock industry to the point that Texas cattle feeders have been operating in the red since 2007."
"Last Thursday, the EPA announced it was denying my request. Why? Because the agency's agriculture and energy economists said the mandates are not causing sufficient damage to warrant action. This not only goes against common sense, but runs counter to the experience of Americans at the grocery checkout counter.
Denying Texas's request is a mistake that will continue to force families to bear a heavier financial burden to put food on the table than necessary and harm the livestock industry.
Supporters of the ethanol mandate have their hearts in the right place if they want to diversify this nation's fuel supply. But artificially propping up an industry to the detriment of the vast majority of Americans is bad policy.
And that's what this mandate does.
There are many sources of renewable energy in addition to corn-based ethanol. It is time America took steps to develop the technology to make use of these sources.
As jaded as we at The E85 Scam has become, we have to actually applaud The Governor of Texas. If not for him speaking out, we would have assumed G. W. Bush would be somehow trickling some of this oil money down to his home state's leader.
Texas is a Big state, not just in size, which it is, but in powerful U. S. money. Do not kid yourself, Hollywood's money is only illusionary as the movies they make. Texas holds high ranking money in many of the different industries in the United States. They have some of the best paid lobbyists that Washington has ever seen.
So, again, we applaud the Texas Governor, and we love saying, "Don't Mess With Texas!"
