Not only is ethanol a net energy LOSER, requiring more energy in the process of collection of corn, storage, transport, refinement, and shipping than it provides to internal combustion engines, it does not dissipate at low temperatures, causing increases in smog at low atmospheric levels. It is also derived from corn, which will cause the prices of corn, beef, milk, cheese, chicken, and many other products, to increase. Here is a report from the AP outlining some of the environmentalist-backed idiocy in Congress (um, can anyone, ANYONE, actually abide by the original intent of the interstate commerce clause?)... Following that, please check out the information about how the price of milk products will go up 40 Cents per gallon, at the OUTSET. It is estimated that the price will rise even more, perhaps 20 additional Cents.

Here is the AP story:

Lawmakers of All Political Stripes Want More Ethanol to Replace Gasoline

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nebraska hog producer Joy Philippi says livestock farmers "are having jitters" over ethanol, worried there won't be enough corn left for the pigs.

She might as well be talking to a wall.

There is an ethanol juggernaut moving through Congress that will call for a sevenfold increase in biofuels production -- almost all of it ethanol -- over the next 15 years. Presidential primaries, anger over gasoline prices and global warming make ethanol a potent political issue for both parties.

Just two years ago Congress directed that oil refiners more than double their use of corn-produced ethanol as a gasoline additive to 7.5 billion gallons a year. Lawmakers' sights are now set on several times that amount.

A bill expected to win bipartisan approval Wednesday from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would require 36 billion gallons of ethanol be used annually by 2022, including 20 billion gallons made from feedstock other than corn -- such as switch grasses, wood chips, corn stems and leaves.

At the same time, lawmakers are considering everything from loan guarantees and tax breaks for research and building cellulosic ethanol plants to making oil companies put ethanol pumps at retail service stations. They're looking to automakers to fine-tune cars and reduce the efficiency loss when using gasoline blends with higher percentages of ethanol.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wants an ethanol package ready by Memorial Day for a Senate vote shortly afterward. A parallel track has another group of senators assembling a package of pro-ethanol tax incentives.

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has told her committee chairmen she also wants an "energy security" package with ethanol as its linchpin ready for a floor vote this summer.

A confluence of issues is behind the rush for ethanol: $3 a gallon gasoline, demand for greater energy security, concern over relying on oil imports from politically volatile regions, and growing worries about carbon dioxide from fossil fuels -- the principal "greenhouse" gas linked to global warming.

There is hardly a lawmaker -- or presidential aspirant -- who hasn't signed onto some sort of ethanol promotion.

"We counted 145 bills that deal with ethanol or renewable fuels in some capacity," says Matt Hartwig, a spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents the ethanol industry.

The bill before the Senate Energy Committee, in addition to setting aggressive ethanol production increases, would provide $250 million for each of six renewable fuels plants. Co-written by the panel's Democratic chairman and senior Republican, respectively New Mexico Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, it also calls for a 50 percent increase in government research on producing ethanol from non-corn feedstocks.

President Bush's plan to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent by 2017 also relies on developing non-corn ethanol. It's the same product as corn-based ethanol, but scientists have found it harder to develop the enzymes needed to economically convert it to a fuel.

Bingaman's bill would require a percentage of ethanol on the market to be cellulosic by 2016. By 2022, at least 20 billion gallons of the total 36 billion gallons a year would have to be cellulosic ethanol.

Livestock farmers like hog producer Philippi, who raised her concerns at a recent Senate hearing, also are pushing for more research into cellulosic ethanol, hoping to take pressure off the corn markets.

"Our agricultural sector has demonstrated an impressive capability to supply renewable fuels," says Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, a longtime ethanol cheerleader, who once drank some of the fuel -- essentially alcohol -- to demonstrate it is not harmful.

Automakers have also fanned the ethanol flames by promoting -- at the White House, on Capitol Hill and to the media -- their push to put more "flex-fuel" vehicles on the road that can run on either gasoline or an 85 percent blend of ethanol, known as E-85.

Major manufacturers have pledged to double production of such vehicles to 2 million a year over the next three years.

The oil industry says it supports expanded use of ethanol but wants to keep it as a blend with gasoline and not as a major expansion of E-85. The oil industry has been lobbying against proposals that would require the installation of pumps that carry E-85 fuel.

"We support more ethanol in the fuel supply," Peter J. Robertson, vice chairman of Chevron Corp., said in an interview. With a 10 percent ethanol blend, gasoline refiners can use all the ethanol that corn farmers can produce, he said.

The ethanol industry estimates that with new efficiencies corn likely can supply up to 14 billion gallons a year before impacting food supplies. Motorists today buy about 140 billion gallons of gasoline a year.

Ethanol has long benefited from a 51-cent tax break, so government support for it has been a staple of Farm Belt politics. Bush repeatedly has touted expanded ethanol use as a central part of his energy policy and has sent to Congress a proposal mandating the use of 35 billion gallons a year of "alternative" fuels, mostly ethanol, by 2017.

Those vying to succeed Bush also have joined the ethanol bandwagon, aware that an early campaign test will be in Iowa, where corn and ethanol are king.

The bill is S 987, the "Biofuels for Energy Security and Transportation Act."

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Then there is this stark reality:

From the Boston Globe (Note that despite higher demand, leftists politicians STILL want to take tax money from people to subsidize dairy farmers in MA, JEESH!):

"Summer dairy prices headed up
Warning comes as producers seek aid, citing woes last year

By Bruce A. Mohl, Globe Staff | April 12, 2007

The price of milk and some other dairy products are headed for record highs this summer, with raw milk prices expected to jump as much as 40 cents a gallon since last year, according to industry officials.

Officials at H.P. Hood, the Chelsea-based dairy, said the price farmers receive for raw milk has been rising steadily and will rise at least another 25 cents during the summer . As a result, retail prices for milk, ice cream, and cottage cheese will increase, although by how much is unclear. Retailers declined to comment yesterday.

"We have an unprecedented situation," said Mike Suever , senior vice president for milk procurement at Hood.

The warnings about sharply higher raw milk prices come at a time when Massachusetts dairy farmers and their counterparts in several other Northeastern states are pushing hard for financial aid from state regulators. Dairy farmers say low prices and high production costs last year devastated their businesses. But Hood, other dairies, and supermarket chains say price supports are unnecessary, pointing to the sharp uptick in prices as evidence.

Senator Stephen M. Brewer , a Democrat from Barre who is seeking state financial help for Massachusetts' 167 dairy farmers, said the escalation in prices is good news. "But it doesn't obviate the need to deal with the debt these farmers have incurred over the last year," he said. Brewer said farmers need an immediate infusion of $3 million to $12 million from the state.

In testimony before state regulators earlier this year, Massachusetts dairy farmers said it costs them roughly $1.63 to $1.80 to produce a gallon of milk without paying themselves a salary or covering debt costs.

Suever is forecasting that raw milk prices this year will average $1.67 a gallon, not including special fees some dairies pay. If that happens, the price farmers receive for milk will be 47 cents a gallon higher this year than last, and 10 cents a gallon higher than in 2004, when prices last jumped.

"The price this year is not just going to beat the record by a few cents. It's going to knock it out of the park," Suever said.
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Here is something from an environmental website, just to show you that not all greens are totally nuts about the ethanol idea...

Greenmesh.com writer Paul Kuehnel explains:

"Expect the price of raw milk to go up 40 cents a gallon by summer.

Cows eat alfalfa and grains. The price of alfalfa goes up because farmers are growing more corn as the demand for corn for ethanol plants coming online increases. Add to this increasing energy costs for dairy producers and a reduction in milk production over the past few years because of slim profit margins for dairy farmers; with a strong global demand for U.S dairy products.

Milk prices have been creeping up since the beginning of the year and farmers nationwide plan to plant more corn this year. Strong international demand for U.S. dairy ingredients, coupled with climbing corn and soybean prices, has caused milk prices to reach record highs recently, according to the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA)

A dollar a week for milk doesn't mean much to a commodity trader cashing in on the hot new wave of food/fuel commodity based trading, a politician making six digits, or a CEO making $25 million. However, for a single mother on a tight budget, it’s far easier not to drive as much when gas prices go up than it is to stop eating."'

For more, check the site:

http://greenmesh.com/2007/04/ethanol_production_helps_spike.php

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