Burning Issues Over Ethanol - Detractors of ethanol are trying to decelerate its take off. Ethanol production is ramping up to meet federal mandates, which critics say has created global food shortages and potentially more greenhouse gas emissions.

People lose sight of the inexorable huge impacts of our fossil fuel dependencies:

1. Rising energy prices as reserves dwindle. 2. Rising related prices on everything from food to plastics and medicines. 3. Rising geopolitical tension (war) as nations compete for dwindling resources. 4. Greenhouse warming with attendant coastal inundation, weather damage, crop failure, disease, and ecosystem collapse.

Let's try to put things in perspective:

Only Item 1 will be felt directly at the gas pump. The others really SHOULD be added up and tacked onto the price of gasoline. In that view, the price of gasoline would probably be $20/gallon today, heading toward $100 in 5 years. In that view, the investment of a few billion in renewable resources, the only feasible way to ameliorate fossil energy price shock, would add about $0.10/gallon. These numbers are just guesstimates, but the proportions are realistic.

Ultimately, if greenhouse warming does cause ecosystem collapse and the human species collapses right along with the rest of them, as some biologists predict, then you can put infinity in the numerator and calculate the proportions again.

Another way to assess the situation is with a root-cause analysis. The cost of shifting to ethanol, with its effect on food prices, is being driven by our addition to fossil fuels. It's the dependency causing the problems, not the treatment.