Ethanol in the energy equation

Re “Wasted energy,” editorial, July 3

Your support of a requested waiver of the federal renewable fuels standard is extremely shortsighted. Waiving the standard would hurt consumers, who would be forced to pay significantly higher gasoline prices.

Ethanol plants across the country are providing jobs and economic benefits and are helping to revitalize rural America. Additionally, increased ethanol production has not only reduced America’s dependence on imported oil, it is keeping gasoline prices down by 50 cents a gallon.

The causes of higher food prices today include rising demand, changing dietary habits, weather, speculation and, above all, the skyrocketing price of oil. There is no silver bullet to our nation’s energy woes. However, ethanol can and will continue to be a part of the solution.

Bob Dinneen

Washington

The writer is president and chief executive of the Renewable Fuels Assn.

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For a sentimentalist like me, who believes that corn and other agricultural commodities should be grown to feed a hungry world, I appreciate your illumination of the consequences of ethanol production.

Our country of innovators is more than capable of meeting energy challenges without relying on ethanol production. The question is whether we have the political will to do so. During the Democratic primary campaign, Barack Obama said that “Washington has become a place where good ideas go to die.” Nowhere is this more true than in the area of energy policy. It remains to be seen whether the senator from Illinois or the senator from Arizona (both of whom, as sitting members of Congress, are capable of launching real initiatives now) can successfully defeat the entrenched lobbyists and bureaucrats who thwart innovation.

It would be helpful to have our government as a partner and not an adversary during this defining moment in our history.

John Barbieri

San Pedro