XPost: alt.christnet.second-coming.real-soon-now, alt.religion.c   
   ristian.last-days   
   From: Extermination@   
      
   "James"  wrote in message   
   news:Xns9E39BB8BDB03Bgbczxbgfdz@94.75.214.39...   
      
      
   US  corn ethanol "was not a good policy"-Gore   
   Mon Nov 22, 2010 12:24pm GMT   
      
   U.S. ethanol consumes about 40 pct corn crop   
   * Impact on food prices "real"   
      
      
   By Gerard Wynn   
      
   ATHENS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore said support   
   for corn-based ethanol in the United States was "not a good policy", weeks   
   before tax credits are up for renewal.   
      
   U.S. blending tax breaks for ethanol make it profitable for refiners to use   
   the fuel even when it is more expensive than gasoline. The credits are up   
   for renewal on Dec. 31.   
      
   Total U.S. ethanol subsidies reached $7.7 billion last year according to the   
   International Energy Industry, which said biofuels worldwide received more   
   subsidies than any other form of renewable energy.   
      
   "It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first   
   generation ethanol," said Gore, speaking at a green energy business   
   conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank.   
      
   "First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion   
   ratios are at best very small.   
      
   "It's hard once such a programme is put in place to deal with the lobbies   
   that keep it going."   
   He explained his own support for the original programme on his presidential   
   ambitions.   
      
   "One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention   
   to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness   
   for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for   
   president."   
      
   U.S. ethanol is made by extracting sugar from corn, an energy-intensive   
   process. The U.S. ethanol industry will consume about 41 percent of the U.S.   
   corn crop this year, or 15 percent of the global corn crop, according to   
   Goldman Sachs analysts.   
      
   A food-versus-fuel debate erupted in 2008, in the wake of record food   
   prices, where the biofuel industry was criticised for helping stoke food   
   prices.   
      
   Gore said a range of factors had contributed to that food price crisis,   
   including drought in Australia, but said there was no doubt biofuels have an   
   effect.   
      
   "The size, the percentage of corn particularly, which is now being (used   
   for) first generation ethanol definitely has an impact on food prices.   
      
   "The competition with food prices is real."   
      
   Gore supported so-called second generation technologies which do not compete   
   with food, for example cellulosic technologies which use chemicals or   
   enzymes to extract sugar from fibre for example in wood, waste or grass.   
      
   "I do think second and third generation that don't compete with food prices   
   will play an increasing role, certainly with aviation fuels."   
   Gore added did that he did not expect a U.S. clean energy or climate bill   
   for "at least two years" following the mid-term elections which saw   
   Republicans increase their support.   
      
   (Reporting by Gerard Wynn; editing by Keiron Henderson)   
      
   © Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)