Even though he denies it, the idea of John McCain personally roughing up commies makes me respect the man more.

Very rough overlay of graphs showing the value of the dollar (in black and numbers on left) to the real price per barrel of oil (in red and numbers on right). Cyan is nominal value per barrel of oil.  For personal reference more than anything else.

(Sources: Dollar graph from here. Oil graph from somewhere else, I don’t remember. Bad, Jason!)

A World Bank report finds that biofuel pushed food prices up around the globe by nearly 75%:

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

When you look at corn subsidies (around $7 billion a year for fuel, around $5 billion a year for food), which do you think farmers and industries are more likely to flock to?

Less corn for consumption without a decrease in demand leads to, gasp, higher corn prices! Corn is a staple crop for feeding livestock. Increased costs of corn leads to increased cost of meat leads to increased costs at the supermarket or elsewhere.

Ethanol additives has not led to a decrease in the cost of gasoline and its efficiency has been in doubt for decades. But boy did it sound good politically…

EDIT: The Heritage Foundation has a good writeup on farm subsidies available here.

So I’ve accidentally “spammed” some previously approved comments and for that I apologize.  If you find that your comments aren’t showing up in a reasonable amount of time (or at all), please contact me and let me know so I can fix it.  Sorry.