We're headed for a global food crises.

[2centsworth]

if you have the time to watch the following video I promise you will be happy you did. This author has predicted many of the problems we now face and makes compelling arguments why it will get even worse.

Here's an article that gives insight into what's happening today http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120949327146453423.html

but what will happen in the future (within 10 years) is even scarier. watch the video, it will be better than an episode of Friends.
http://fora.tv/2008/06/18/Paul_Roberts_The_End_of_Food

[Viva Las Espuelas]

one thing that would help this situation is getting off this ethanol kick. burning food for fuel makes no sense. especially when it costs more to make than gas.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

It was all by design. Eventually the ethanol thing will get reversed.

[Milton.]

One day we may all have to eat each other.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Just wait til' the crisis over drinking water hits in about 20 years. But yeah, thanks a lot to all the assholes in D.C. and their ethanol fetish.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

It was all by design. Eventually the ethanol thing will get reversed.it was a stupid political move by both sides.

[baseline bum]

Propping ethanol's the stupidest fucking thing this government has done in the last 10 years, and that's saying a lot. I remember reading an article in Scientific American a couple of years ago explaining that extracting ethanol from corn required more energy than was provided by the fuel when it burned, so even if we could make the fuel for free, it would still be fucking retarded to do it.

[Sequ of the corn]

it was a stupid political move by both sides.

Aren't they always?

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Propping ethanol's the stupidest fucking thing this government has done in the last 10 years, and that's saying a lot. I remember reading an article in Scientific American a couple of years ago explaining that extracting ethanol from corn required more energy than was provided by the fuel when it burned, so even if we could make the fuel for free, it would still be fucking retarded to do it.

And Pelosi and Obama still think it's part of the 'solution' to our energy problems.

:rolleyes So, we can't drill our own oil, but burning our own food is a great idea. Fucking idiots.

[baseline bum]

And Pelosi and Obama still think it's part of the 'solution' to our energy problems.

:rolleyes So, we can't drill our own oil, but burning our own food is a great idea. Fucking idiots.

Your boy Bush is pushing this bullshit on everyone.

[2centsworth]

We need a comprehensive energy policy, period. McCain and Obama have some similar ideas, but Energy seems to be the centerpiece of McCain's platform.

I'm afraid Obama will get distracted with the windfall profits (buy votes) idea and waste precious time in actually doing something productive.

McCain is a pretty green guy and should make headway with the dems.

[DizzG.]

Then we better pig out now!












http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p55/RackTheMouse/pig-time-09.jpg

[Bartleby]

McCain is a pretty green guy and should make headway with the dems.

He was, but it's harder to tell where he stands on the environment now.

[MannyIsGod]

Ethanol is not a product of either party but a product of both and their love for the good ole American Farm Subsidy. I can't wait till we stop that shit. Its the reason why everything has High Fructose Corn Syrup as well and that has a lot to do with our nations health problems.

[JoeChalupa]

Health, smealth. I get tired of all that crap.

[scott]

"Ethanol" is not the problem per se, but the US Government's pandering to the domestic corn industry and essentially giving it control over the ethanol market is.

[Extra Stout]

Ethanol is not a product of either party but a product of both and their love for the good ole American Farm Subsidy. I can't wait till we stop that shit. Its the reason why everything has High Fructose Corn Syrup as well and that has a lot to do with our nations health problems.
Manny for President.

[101A]

Manny for President.

He's on a roll with me, as well. That's three separate posts, in succession, in three different threads, I've been impressed with.

That avatar'l make one heluva campaign poster.

[fyatuk]

Ethanol is only remotely useful when made from cane. It's insane that ethanol has become even as popular as it is. Not that I didn't expect it when i saw Bush's cabinet, but still.

[2centsworth]

He was, but it's harder to tell where he stands on the environment now.

Per his campaign website.

John McCain Will Make Greening The Federal Government A Priority Of His Administration. The federal government is the largest electricity consumer on earth and occupies 3.3 billion square feet of space worldwide. It provides an enormous opportunity to lead by example. By applying a higher efficiency standard to new buildings leased or purchased or retrofitting existing buildings, we can save taxpayers substantial money in energy costs, and move the construction market in the direction of green technology.

[Mr. Body]

Ethanol is only remotely useful when made from cane. It's insane that ethanol has become even as popular as it is. Not that I didn't expect it when i saw Bush's cabinet, but still.

It's partly the fault of the Iowa caucasus. Because it's the first caucus for presidents, it gets pandered to a ton, and ethanol is a big money-winner for the state.

[Bartleby]

Per his campaign website.

John McCain Will Make Greening The Federal Government A Priority Of His Administration. The federal government is the largest electricity consumer on earth and occupies 3.3 billion square feet of space worldwide. It provides an enormous opportunity to lead by example. By applying a higher efficiency standard to new buildings leased or purchased or retrofitting existing buildings, we can save taxpayers substantial money in energy costs, and move the construction market in the direction of green technology.

That makes for great campaign rhetoric, but then there is this:


Eight Strikes and You’re Out
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

John McCain recently tried to underscore his seriousness about pushing through a new energy policy, with a strong focus on more drilling for oil, by telling a motorcycle convention that Congress needed to come back from vacation immediately and do something about America’s energy crisis. “Tell them to come back and get to work!” McCain bellowed.

Sorry, but I can’t let that one go by. McCain knows why.

It was only five days earlier, on July 30, that the Senate was voting for the eighth time in the past year on a broad, vitally important bill — S. 3335 — that would have extended the investment tax credits for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems.

Both the wind and solar industries depend on these credits — which expire in December — to scale their businesses and become competitive with coal, oil and natural gas. Unlike offshore drilling, these credits could have an immediate impact on America’s energy profile.

Senator McCain did not show up for the crucial vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the eighth time. In fact, John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year — which effectively counts as a no vote each time. Once, he was even in the Senate and wouldn’t leave his office to vote.

“McCain did not show up on any votes,” said Scott Sklar, president of The Stella Group, which tracks clean-technology legislation. Despite that, McCain’s campaign commercial running during the Olympics shows a bunch of spinning wind turbines — the very wind turbines that he would not cast a vote to subsidize, even though he supports big subsidies for nuclear power.

Barack Obama did not vote on July 30 either — which is equally inexcusable in my book — but he did vote on three previous occasions in favor of the solar and wind credits.

The fact that Congress has failed eight times to renew them is largely because of a hard core of Republican senators who either don’t want to give Democrats such a victory in an election year or simply don’t believe in renewable energy.

What impact does this have? In the solar industry today there is a rush to finish any project that would be up and running by Dec. 31 — when the credits expire — and most everything beyond that is now on hold. Consider the Solana concentrated solar power plant, 70 miles southwest of Phoenix in McCain’s home state. It is the biggest proposed concentrating solar energy project ever. The farsighted local utility is ready to buy its power.

But because of the Senate’s refusal to extend the solar tax credits, “we cannot get our bank financing,” said Fred Morse, a senior adviser for the American operations of Abengoa Solar, which is building the project. “Without the credits, the numbers don’t work.” Some 2,000 construction jobs are on hold.

Roger Efird is president of Suntech America — a major Chinese-owned solar panel maker that actually wants to build a new factory in America. They’ve been scouting the country for sites, and several governors have been courting them. But Efird told me that when the solar credits failed to pass the Senate, his boss told him: “Don’t set up any more meetings with governors. It makes absolutely no sense to do this if we don’t have stability in the incentive programs.”

One of the biggest canards peddled by Big Oil is that, “Sure, we’ll need wind and solar energy, but it’s just not cost effective yet.” They’ve been saying that for 30 years. What these tax credits are designed to do is to stimulate investments by many players in solar and wind so these technologies can quickly move down the learning curve and become competitive with coal and oil — which is why some people are trying to block them.

As Richard K. Lester, an energy-innovation expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, notes, “The best chance we have — perhaps the only chance” of addressing the combined challenges of energy supply and demand, climate change and energy security “is to accelerate the introduction of new technologies for energy supply and use and deploy them on a very large scale.”

This, he argues, will take more than a Manhattan Project. It will require a fundamental reshaping by government of the prices and regulations and research-and-development budgets that shape the energy market. Without taxing fossil fuels so they become more expensive and giving subsidies to renewable fuels so they become more competitive — and changing regulations so more people and companies have an interest in energy efficiency — we will not get innovation in clean power at the scale we need.

That is what this election should be focusing on. Everything else is just bogus rhetoric designed by cynical candidates who think Americans are so stupid — so bloody stupid — that if you just show them wind turbines in your Olympics ad they’ll actually think you showed up and voted for such renewable power — when you didn’t.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/13/opinion/13friedman.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

[2centsworth]

That makes for great campaign rhetoric, but then there is this:

both he and Obama did not vote. Classic media manipulation.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/o000167/

[Viva Las Espuelas]

That makes for great campaign rhetoric, but then there is this:

,but more importantly, there is this

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 2nd Session as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate
Vote Summary Question: On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to Consider S.3335 ) Vote Number: 192 Vote Date: July 30, 2008, 11:50 AM Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Cloture Motion Rejected Measure Number: S. 3335 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:SN3335:) (Jobs, Energy, Families, and Disaster Relief Act of 2008 ) Measure Title: A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend certain expiring provisions, and for other purposes. Vote Counts:YEAs51
NAYs43
Not Voting6 Vote Summary (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00192#top)By Senator Name (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00192#name)By Vote Position (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00192#position)By Home State (http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00192#state) http://www.senate.gov/resources/graphic/horiz_content_break.gif Alphabetical by Senator Name Akaka (D-HI), Yea
Alexander (R-TN), Nay
Allard (R-CO), Nay
Barrasso (R-WY), Nay
Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Bennett (R-UT), Nay
Biden (D-DE), Yea
Bingaman (D-NM), Yea
Bond (R-MO), Nay
Boxer (D-CA), Yea
Brown (D-OH), Yea
Brownback (R-KS), Nay
Bunning (R-KY), Nay
Burr (R-NC), Nay
Byrd (D-WV), Yea
Cantwell (D-WA), Yea
Cardin (D-MD), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Yea
Chambliss (R-GA), Nay
Clinton (D-NY), Yea
Coburn (R-OK), Nay
Cochran (R-MS), Nay
Coleman (R-MN), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Corker (R-TN), Nay
Cornyn (R-TX), Nay
Craig (R-ID), Nay
Crapo (R-ID), Nay
DeMint (R-SC), Nay
Dodd (D-CT), Yea
Dole (R-NC), Yea
Domenici (R-NM), Nay
Dorgan (D-ND), Yea
Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Ensign (R-NV), Nay
Enzi (R-WY), Nay
Feingold (D-WI), Yea
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Graham (R-SC), Nay
Grassley (R-IA), Nay
Gregg (R-NH), Nay
Hagel (R-NE), Nay
Harkin (D-IA), Yea
Hatch (R-UT), Nay
Hutchison (R-TX), Nay
Inhofe (R-OK), Nay
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Isakson (R-GA), Nay
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Kennedy (D-MA), Not Voting
Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Klobuchar (D-MN), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Nay
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Levin (D-MI), Yea
Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Lugar (R-IN), Nay
Martinez (R-FL), Nay
McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting
McCaskill (D-MO), Not Voting
McConnell (R-KY), Nay
Menendez (D-NJ), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Murkowski (R-AK), Nay
Murray (D-WA), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Obama (D-IL), Not Voting
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Nay
Roberts (R-KS), Nay
Rockefeller (D-WV), Not Voting
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Sanders (I-VT), Yea
Schumer (D-NY), Yea
Sessions (R-AL), Nay
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Smith (R-OR), Yea
Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Specter (R-PA), Nay
Stabenow (D-MI), Yea
Stevens (R-AK), Nay
Sununu (R-NH), Nay
Tester (D-MT), Yea
Thune (R-SD), Nay
Vitter (R-LA), Nay
Voinovich (R-OH), Nay
Warner (R-VA), Nay
Webb (D-VA), Yea
Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
Wicker (R-MS), Not Voting
Wyden (D-OR), Yea

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00192

--------------------------------------------------------------------

in both of their defense i'm sure they were out campaigning.

[Bartleby]

both he and Obama did not vote. Classic media manipulation.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/o000167/

True, he missed that crucial vote, which is pretty damn lame, as Friedman points out, but "but he did vote on three previous occasions in favor of the solar and wind credits."

Neither of the two candidates really passes the smell test on this issue, but my point still stands that McCain seemed to be greener a few years ago (when, for example, he voted against drilling in ANWR) than he is now.

[fyatuk]

That makes for great campaign rhetoric, but then there is this:

According to the Thomas LOC website, this bill was introduced to the senate on 07-24-08 and had one vote to invoke cloture (end debate and actually vote on the bill), and that is it.

He also missed a vote to invoke cloture on HR6049 (also late July, as well as mid-June twice), and a couple other energy bills in roughly the same time frame.

I'm not sure which bills the article is including. I seriously doubt McCain, Obama, Clinton, etc, have voted more than a handful of times since about October of last year.

You cannot honestly expect McCain or Obama to vote on anything while campaigning for the Presidency. In fact, in 2004, Kerry gave a speech on issue he deemed as highly important while a vote was going on in the Senate from within (or maybe just outside) the DC MSA. It's one of the reasons I think the nation needs to follow TX's lead and establish rules stating to run for one elected office you must resign from your current office and allow a replacement to be named.

Heck, in 2003 and 2004 combined, Kerry voted on less than 1/3rd of the Senate votes, mostly in the early part of 03. I haven't bothered looking at how its affecting Obama and McCains voting ability, but I suspect it is about the same.

[Viva Las Espuelas]

i'm trying to look for the other supposed bill that obama voted for. the site lists related bills, but the other one was only introduced. no vote by anybody.

[shelshor]

Ethanol is not a product of either party but a product of both and their love for the good ole American Farm Subsidy. I can't wait till we stop that shit. Its the reason why everything has High Fructose Corn Syrup as well and that has a lot to do with our nations health problems.

Sadly, the assorted USDA farm & trade programs & regs have had so many "fixes" and patches that it resembles the Tax Code for being a convoluted mess
Both need to be tossed and rewritten from the start
Most of the farmers I know would love to leave the government out of their operations, but the feds have intruded so much and manipulated the markets to the point that a family farmer has to buy in to the subsidies just to feed his family and stay in business

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Your boy Bush is pushing this bullshit on everyone.

Look, I think any Republican pushing ethanol on us is a fucking idiot too.

But I didn't see Bush kick and scream about drilling for oil in our backyard, saying hell no, and saying ethanol is where it's at like the Chosen One and her Hagness.