Idaho Could be Looking at More Corn in the Gas Tanks

Joe Biden wants to put food into your gas tank.  He believes an increase in the ethanol-blended will alleviate the pain at the gas pumps.  Biden is proposing an increase to 15 percent ethanol per gallon.  Anecdotally, drivers have told me for many years they believe ethanol harms their vehicles and reduces their mileage.  If this is true, then this may not be the break the President foresees.

Eat it or Burn it in Your Tank

We may also be facing a corn shortage.  Corn requires a lot of fertilizer.  There’s a shortage of the latter.  Some corn producers are planning a switch to soybeans, which use a lot less fertilizer.

Some have said the original adoption of ethanol 15 years ago created a corn shortage and hunger across the Middle East and North Africa.  Food riots followed and several governments collapsed and the region was destabilized.

Corn became a staple of western diets 40 years ago.  Growers were bringing in massive surpluses and looking to expand markets.  Later, ethanol was viewed as a steady market, and environmentalists liked it because it wasn’t pumped or drilled from beneath the ground.

This is a Band-Aid for a Massive Wound

The Biden people are looking for a headline.  He needs to look as if he’s making some effort to ease the national discomfort.  The thing is, he can’t possibly find a headline every day as a distraction.  The price of fuel is subject to supply and demand.  He could be addressing those two issues.

Meanwhile, the price per barrel of oil is bouncing around like a ping-pong ball.  Even as that happens, there is a looming shortage of distillate fuels.  This means the price for gas could drop, but diesel and jet fuel would remain high.