CNN Airs Glowing Review
of Ethanol Boom in Iowa
Reporter Lothian leaves out how
taxpayers are picking up a large part of the bill.
By Ken Shepherd
Business & Media Institute
June 9, 2006
Paying the Price was the headline onscreen as CNNs
Dan Lothian praised the booming ethanol industry in Iowa.
Unfortunately for viewers, Lothians unbalanced report left out any
mention of the high price taxpayers foot to subsidize ethanol.
While Lothian hinted at a lot of debate over ethanol, he made
clear his June 9 American Morning story wouldnt get into it.
This is a story about how people in one state have grabbed on to
ethanol and have created somewhat of a gold rush, Lothian added,
introducing his taped segment from an ethanol plant in Mason City,
Iowa.
Lothians story was aglow with praise for ethanol, All across the
heartland, a new crop is sprouting out of the ground and the harvest
is golden, he cooed.
Yet what Lothian left out is how the ethanol boom is financed by tax
dollars and punitive tariffs which keep competition from foreign
ethanol at bay.
The Heritage Foundations
Ben Lieberman wrote in April about how new mandates on ethanol use in gasoline
drive up gas prices.
The higher the level of production, the more pressure on corn
prices, and the harder it is for ethanol producers to meet demand,
Lieberman argued, adding that because ethanol cannot be distributed
through pipelines, the cost of transporting it long distances will
be high.
A May 1, 2006 study by the
George C. Marshall Institute
found that even though American ethanol currently enjoys a
$0.51/gallon subsidy, ethanol still costs more than gasoline while
the $0.54-a-gallon tariff on foreign ethanol eliminates any
economic benefit from increased exports.
Washington Post business columnist
Steven Pearlstein reported on May 24 that the wholesale price of ethanol has reached
$2.90 a gallon or double what it was only a year ago.
The bottom line: the real story Lothian missed is how Americans are
paying the price to support an industry that would run out of gas
without Big Governments support.
