The American Spectator

I would definitely enjoy an in-depth 20/20 expose on this subject by John Stossel. A month or two ago, he hosted a piece comparing the cost to produce ethanol verses the production cost for gasoline. If that’s what it takes to wake up the electorate to this ill-conceived mandate, then I’m all for it.

p>Thanks a lot, Congress, for increasing my food bill. Talk about the law of unintended consequences! br> — Owen H. Carneal, Jr. br> Yorktown, Virginia /p>

Adding the increase in food prices, the fact that Americans are using more gasoline this year is mostly due to the use of 10% gasohol. Theoretically, this is 3% less efficient (which of course means a 3% increase in number of gallons required, even if people drive the same number of miles). In fact, many reports are now indicating the loss in gas mileage may be closer to 10-15% since engines may not burn gasohol in the same manner.

p>Research is required. br> — Mark A. Peterson , Ph.D. br> Houston, Texas /p>

Congressional meddling goes far further back than the mess they started in 2005.

p>It goes all the back to energy crisis in the early 1970s when they created a new bureaucracy called the Energy Research and Development Agency (ERDA) whose mission was to investigate and bring to the marketplace alternative fuel products. ERDA was soon to be integrated into the Department of Energy an even larger bureaucracy. Both ERDA and the present day DOE have failed miserably in the development of new energy sources to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Way back in the 1970s the United States was imported approximately 40% of our oil supplies from foreign sources; the number is more like 70%. The latest example of congressional meddling is the mandate by Congress regarding Yucca Mountain, the supposed pilot plant for the disposal of high-level radioactive wastes that is now reaching into the billions of cost overruns and approaching decades of schedule delays. With the reemergence of nuclear power the need for a feasible, cost effective high-level waste disposal is critical. Yucca Mountain does not appear to satisfy this requirement, if and when it meets licensing standards.