In what appears to be a last ditch effort to appeal to Iowa voters, John McCain has changed his public stance on ethanol. Up until now the Arizona senator and Republican Presidential candidate had a been a vocal opponent of providing Federal subsidies to the corn based fuel. However in a speech at the University of Northern Iowa yesterday, McCain told the crowd, “We’ll invest in all energy alternatives: nuclear, wind, tide, solar, ethanol, biofuels.” McCain’s Vice Presidential running-mate Sarah Palin has also gotten in on the pander bear act, telling an audience during an Iowa speech, “harnessing alternative sources like the wind, and the solar and the biomass and the geothermal and the ethanol.”

This flip flop over “the ethanol”, as Governor Palin puts it, illustrates to me at least exactly what is wrong with McCain campaign these days. Like many, in the past I had admired the principled stances John McCain had taken, often against his own party to stand up for what he thought was right. But unfortunately those days are long gone for the Arizona Senator.

I couldn’t agree more with the previous McCain position on ethanol, before the flip flop. The subsidies of this not ready for prime time biofuel are little more than a gimme to the corn producing states of middle America, Iowa of course being a huge benefactor. This could be overlooked if it weren’t for the following:

• Ethanol derived from corn uses more energy to process than it actually delivers as a fuel; a net energy loss. This should have been the final word on the matter, if politics hadn’t twisted things around.
• Ethanol subsidies in the United States are driving up food prices both here and around the globe. The corn production now being used for ethanol not only drives up the prices of corn commodities, it has also sent the price of meat up around the world, with corn being one of the chief grains used to feed livestock & poultry. When taking into account that the United States is far and away the largest corn producer on earth, it’s easy to see how widespread the effects of the price increases are being felt.
• Ethanol is a horrible fuel. If you’ve ever filled up at a station that has ethanol mixed into their gasoline, you’ll notice that you burn a tank off much quicker than usual. Ethanol delivers considerably worse mileage than gas.

It should be noted that Senator McCain’s opponent, Democratic nominee Barack Obama has long been a backer of ethanol subsidies. I don’t say this too often, but this one area where Senator Obama is dead wrong. It’s not hard to see why he would have taken the stance however, just as it’s easy to see why McCain is now. Iowa and its early Caucus primaries represented a huge hurdle for Obama to clear if he were to have any chance at the Democratic nomination. Also, downstate Illinois grows a lot of corn, so the subsidies would certainly work as pork for his homestate. Now McCain wants in on the act by trying to capture Iowa’s electoral votes and slow Obama’s roll toward the White House, and doesn’t mind flip flopping for a few electoral votes in these last desperate days. However none of the above makes supporting ethanol the right thing to do, even if it is politically expedient for both candidates.

You can takepart in promoting a responsible future for sustainable energy by checking out the Solar Energy Industries Association.

LINKS:

NY Times: Green Inc.: McCain and Palin utter the “E” word

NY Times: The Caucus: In Iowa, McCain Warms to US role in promoting ethanol

Donklephant: McCain embraces ethanol