Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol

When VeraSun Energy inaugurated a new ethanol processing plant last summer in Charles City, Iowa, some of that industryâ??s most prominent boosters showed up. Leaders of the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association, for instance, came to help cut the ribbon â?? and so did Senator Barack Obama.

Then running far behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in name recognition and in the polls, Mr. Obama was in the midst of a campaign swing through the state where he would eventually register his first caucus victory. And as befits a senator from Illinois, the countryâ??s second largest corn-producing state, he delivered a ringing endorsement of ethanol as an alternative fuel.

Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.

In the heart of the Corn Belt that August day, Mr. Obama argued that embracing ethanol â??ultimately helps our national security, because right now weâ??re sending billions of dollars to some of the most hostile nations on earth.â?� Americaâ??s oil dependence, he added, â??makes it more difficult for us to shape a foreign policy that is intelligent and is creating security for the long term.â?�

Nowadays, when Mr. Obama travels in farm country, he is sometimes accompanied by his friend Tom Daschle, the former Senate majority leader from South Dakota. Mr. Daschle now serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works at a Washington law firm where, according to his online job description, â??he spends a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy.â?�

Mr. Obamaâ??s lead advisor on energy and environmental issues, Jason Grumet, came to the campaign from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan initiative associated with Mr. Daschle and Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican who is also a former Senate majority leader and a big ethanol backer who had close ties to the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland.

Not long after arriving in the Senate, Mr. Obama himself briefly provoked a controversy by flying at subsidized rates on corporate airplanes, including twice on jets owned by Archer Daniels Midland, which is the nationâ??s largest ethanol producer and is based in his home state.
Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol - NYTimes.com

So what's the difference between being linked to oil lobbyists or ethanal lobbyists? Seems to me that corrupt is corrupt no matter what the "special interest" is.

Now we have the floods that have wiped out a good portion of the corn crop....so what effect will this have on food if we are diverting this crop to fuel?

Have a good one!:s4:

Seems special-interest endorsements aren't such a clear-cut issue. All the presidential candidates support getting America onto some alternative fuel (at least publicly, anyway), and thus you're gonna have to support those alternative fuels. I think there's a big difference between special interests like oil and pharmaceutical, who only help influence policy for themselves, and the endorsement of interests that the public is demanding and wants. No matter who you get for president, any and all of them will endorse alternative fuel companies. That's not really the same SI debate, it's necessity.



Corn is a stupid way to go though. It's not a renewable resource, it'll increase already too-high food prices, and it can't possibly meet the nations energy needs; not by a long shot. America is just setting itself up for yet another fuel shortage crisis down the road.