Today's Opinionjournal Political Diary (subscription only) has a fantastic John Fund item on political pandering to ethanol interests. Here's a taste:
The force-feeding of ethanol has now created its own national security and food security problems. Corn prices have nearly doubled, leading to huge increases in the price of tortillas in Mexico and a resulting increase in illegal immigration. Livestock owners can't afford to feed their animals. Food and drink manufacturers are struggling to buy corn and corn syrup. Environmentalists complain that ethanol is crowding out land set aside for conservation and wildlife programs. International aid groups lament that the U.S. is cutting back its charitable food giving because of the shortage of corn. Meanwhile, the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff the U.S. imposes on imported ethanol creates trade tensions with Brazil and other nations and blocks development of an international market in biofuels that really would help U.S. energy security.
Fund goes on to chide all of the serious presidential candidates in both parties who continue to pander to ethanol interests in Iowa. Some of them do this better than others: John McCain likes to joke that he has "A glass of ethanol every morning," for example. The Fund item is worth noting because it reminds us that the effects of policy decisions are often indirect, extremely difficult to predict, and not what we originally had in mind.