Crucial story about ethanol was ignored

On Nov. 22, Al Gore was the keynote speaker at a “green” business conference in Greece. At this conference he admits to wasting millions of tax dollars and misdirecting the country's energy and agricultural policies for personal gain. Some direct quotes from him are “It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first-generation (food crop based) ethanol,” and “One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.”

It is well-documented that while campaigning for the 2000 nomination he frequently touted his support of the ethanol tax credit and having cast the tiebreaking vote to get it through the Senate.

I am at a loss as to why the Herald staff would deem this story not newsworthy. First, it casts significant doubts as to Gore's honesty. Gore admits he lied about the benefits of turning corn into ethanol for a few votes. How could anyone doubt he would stretch the truth about global warming for millions in profit?

Second, we face a difficult, if not impossible, fight to end this program. Obama wants to accelerate the $5 billion and counting wasted on ethanol tax credits as evidenced when his EPA recently approved higher concentrations of ethanol into gasoline with E15. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said. “Wherever sound science and the law support steps to allow more homegrown fuels in America's vehicles, this administration takes those steps.”

Gore says corn to ethanol is a mistake, Obama wants more of it and this isn't newsworthy?

Dave Schachner

Barrington