[Quiniacab]

And, for Oerdin's benefit, let me point out that the linked article is actually an opinion piece. I doubt he'll care in this case, however, given that it's from the left-leaning New York Times and probably doesn't disagree with his own poorly-formed opinion.

[flnastyax]

it wont happen, subsidies are like drugs - and nobody's gonna put Uncle Sam in jail for addiction

[catarleriarly]

They need to be canceled.

[VanDerSmok]

End them immediately.

[allmyflights]

Change them to regular corn subsidies.

[MarythePuppy6]

They need to be canceled.

Agreed. The same could be said of other subsidies, in cotton for example.

By the way, it's silly to produce ethanol from corn. Sugar cane ethanol is 8 times more effective for example, so it makes sense in Brazil, but not in the US.

[RIjdrVs3]

yes we need to get rid of farm subsidies, starting with the CAP.

Indeed. We also need to rid the world of tax havens such as Jersey.

[qCGfQR9T]

Please, let's end this ****...

The Great Corn Con

Until Iowa no longer has disproportionate power over national elections, you can file this under "no ****ing way."

[omaculer]

**** Iowa. **** New Hampshire. National primary.

edit: Actually **** the national primary. Rotating regional primary, without the exemptions for Iowa and New Hampshire.

I like this plan. I think the Pacific coast, Alaska and Hawaii should be separate from the rest of the West, however. That might be too many regions, however.

[wrenjmerg]

Last time I checked we pay hefty taxes on it...

[scewLacysmazy]

Jersey isn't a tax haven at all...New Jersey's taxes are relatively high. You're not thinking of Delaware are you?

EDIT: Oh, do you mean the Jersey no one cares about, off the coast of france?

This is an Alby style post. Just FYI.

[Nutpoode]

Yeah, you added an insult in response to something you hadn't heard of before, so it was an Alby.

[HunterM]

Dude, didn't it occur to you for even a moment that the state is named New Jersey?

[easypokergonj]

Agreed. The same could be said of other subsidies, in cotton for example.

By the way, it's silly to produce ethanol from corn. Sugar cane ethanol is 8 times more effective for example, so it makes sense in Brazil, but not in the US.

Yep, not surprisingly sugar cane has loads more sugar then corn does. The US would also do good to simply eliminate the sugar tariff, watch sugar prices drop in half over night, and then make ethanol out of sugar cane sugar if we simply must have ethanol. It would cost less and unlike corn based ethanol it would actually increase the energy supply.

[gvataler]

In the Democratic Party, unfortunately, Barack Obama has breathed life into the caucuses, because it was his win there that propelled him to victory over Hillary Clinton. (One of the less-remarked-upon—and less-admirable--features of the early Obama campaign was its heavy emphasis on caucuses, where Obama could rack up lots of delegates without winning that many actual votes). In the GOP, however, there is some prospect that Iowa may finally be wearing out its welcome. In 2008, John McCain basically skipped the caucuses, and went on to win the nomination nonetheless. If Mitt Romney did the same, it might send the Iowa system into the death spiral it so richly deserves. http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-t-matter.html

[bromgeksan]

Mitt Romney's not so bad. He's like a republican Obama, except he's not black, so he'll lose. That and the baby eating will kill him in the general.

[NeroASERCH]

Why in all that is holy and worthwhile would you subsititute in with ethanol when abundant compressed natural gas is readily available and a proven fuel source for a number of existing engine types?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressed_natural_gas

[geaveheadeNox]

So do you.

[timgreyuvcz]

Why?

Is the age of midget cars that render their occupant susceptible to injury or death appealing to you?

[vTLWqa1l]

Oerdin,
I like your idea about importing sugar too use a fuel. I think the U.S. would like a fuel source that we can control. What are your thoughts on switch grass.

It's nice because it grows wild and can produce limited amounts of ethanol; it's bad because it is not a very efficient process per acre of land so by default it would consume lots of land which could be more productively used for other crops. If the US seriously wants to be more energy independent then it needs to 1) push CAFE standards up, a lot 2) Change building codes so that it is more like Japan forcing people to build dense, energy efficient homes 3) Switch from heating oil fired power plants to nuclear 4) build light rail in all the major cities and HSR connecting the cities. Yes, we'll have to drill more, we do have more places we can drill, but we don't have enough cost efficient reserves to produce enough oil on our own so we have to surpress demand the way Japan does.