prairies vanish in US push for green energy

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ETHANOL_LOSING_GRASSLAND?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-11-13-03-24-17


In this Oct. 24, 2013 photo Robert Malsom checks corn in one of his fields near Roscoe, S.D. Malsam nearly went broke in the 1980s when corn was cheap. So now that prices are high and he can finally make a profit, he's not about to apologize for ripping up prairieland to plant corn. (AP Photo/Doug Dreyer)

ROSCOE, S.D. (AP) -- Robert Malsam nearly went broke in the 1980s when corn was cheap. So now that prices are high and he can finally make a profit, he's not about to apologize for ripping up prairieland to plant corn.

Across the Dakotas and Nebraska, more than 1 million acres of the Great Plains are giving way to cornfields as farmers transform the wild expanse that once served as the backdrop for American pioneers.

This expansion of the Corn Belt is fueled in part by America's green energy policy, which requires oil companies to blend billions of gallons of corn ethanol into their gasoline. In 2010, fuel became the No. 1 use for corn in America, a title it held in 2011 and 2012 and narrowly lost this year. That helps keep prices high.

"It's not hard to do the math there as to what's profitable to have," Malsam said. "I think an ethanol plant is a farmer's friend."

What the green-energy program has made profitable, however, is far from green. A policy intended to reduce global warming is encouraging a farming practice that actually could worsen it.

[pscot]

1. Same sort of farming practces

that triggered the Dust Bowl. Except now it's all done with irrigation. They will drain the Ogallala before they're done.

[dbackjon]

2. Myth: Ethanol is Green

[Nihil]

3. So much for the myth that it's only the corporate farmers that are greedy inconsiderate swine.

> he can finally make a profit, he's not about to apologize for ripping up prairieland to plant corn.

Specifically, he's not about to apologise for ripping up prairieland to plant corn to feed the
hungry but to plant corn so that car humpers can burn it - not just polluting but draining
the aquifers and destroying the land.

Good move scumbag.