Biofuels--snake oil for the twenty-first century

Most Americans are painfully aware that our present consumption of petroleum is unsustainable. The United States has less than 5% of the world's population, but consumes 24.4% of the world's petroleum production. Only 8.5% of the world's petroleum production comes from American wells, which necessitates the importation of 58.2% of our oil. Demand for oil, worldwide, has led to the price of Saudi Arabian Light-34, a typical crude oil, increasing from $15.50 a barrel in 1998 to $93.02 in 2008. In addition to the spiraling cost of petroleum-based fuel, the transfer of our nation's wealth to oil exporting countries helps to lower the value of the dollar while adversely affecting the nation's options in dealing with other nations. Moreover, the combustion of gasoline and diesel fuel is a major source of pollution and contributes to climate change. The solution is simple. We must use less fossil fuel for transportation or reduce the vehicle miles driven or a combination of both approaches. But, Congress and President Bush did little to address the need to reduce petroleum consumption. Instead, Congress created a biofuels program that mandates the use of ethanol and biodiesel. This article explores how agribusiness and their political allies have foisted this snake oil program on the American consumer in a successful effort to transfer billions of dollars from the public to corn farmers, and ethanol and biodiesel producers. In doing this, the environment and the economy are harmed, while the program has little positive effect on our foreign petroleum dependence.