If he limited his columns to cases proving the law of unintended consequences, George Will would still be a busy man.
His latest Newsweek piece details the downside of the unwarranted federal involvement in the biofuels industry. Will reminds us that corn used for ethanol cannot be eaten.
James and Stephen Eaves, writing in Regulation quarterly, note that if
the entire U.S. corn crop were turned into ethanol? it might have to be
to meet the goal of 35 billion gallons of biofuels by 2017?it would
displace 3.5 percent of gasoline use, just slightly more than would be
displaced if drivers properly inflated their tires. And because the
United States produces 40 percent of the world’s corn supply and 70
percent of global corn exports, turning corn into fuel will damage the
world’s poor at a time when rising demand will require a tripling of
world food production by 2050.
Will urges “energetic rethinking” of energy policy.
