Does anyone think that these engineers considered the law of supply and demand when they were racking their brains for a new form of energy? I can see it now, 'Hey guys, why don't we use corn and soy beans to make a fuel that gets poorer mileage than the current option?' Amazingly, they agreed. So they moseyed on out into the mid-west, told the farmers if you plant a lot, we'll pay you a lot. The farmers grinned a nice 5 toothed smile and said, 'Boy howdy, I sure do like the sound of that!'

These engineers had a great thing going, up until they decided to use an in demand commodity! At the time, something around 68% of the supply was being used for consumption and the other was delegated to animal feed and other miscellaneous uses.

Those numbers don't leave a lot of room for other stuff, huh? NOPE! So they decided to go to soy beans...nice. Soy isn't used for alternative forms of food, chemical additives, house hold necessities(soap, linen, etc.)Oh wait, it is!

Imagine yourself, freshman year, sitting in the 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' economics class led by Ben Stein. Bored to tears and incapable of comprehending any words that float from the professor's mouth. One of those topics that these engineers, and apparently the EPA, missed was the lecture on supply and demand!

It's a rather simple idea, illustrated by a nice graph with two opposing lines. As demand goes up, supply goes down and the price goes up.

Well, what if you add more demand to a commodity already in demand? You might ask. That just accelerates this idea, raising food costs and inspiring inflation! Damn it! When I read about E85 years ago in car and driver, I know we were up a river without a paddle. Everyone was so psyched about 'breaking the addiction to oil', they didn't consider the long term implications.

The only progress that the United States has achieved from developing E85 is that they know we can run cars on something other than petroleum. That's fantastic, I'm always a fan of running cars on something other than gas, but we also need to be realistic. I'm sure there are a litany of resources which can be refined into a combustible substance. Why this?!

If it were up to me, we would cut ethanol production entirely until we find a better raw source. Corn and soy beans are not the answer. Costs for farmers are tipple what they were a few years ago and there isn't a chance in hell that they're going to cover the costs themselves. This, among other things, is helping to fuel inflation and further cripple our economy.

*oil is about to go under $116, which is nice to see*