WSJ Declares Ethanol “Under Siege”

The Wall Street Journal front page article on ethanol this week is getting lots of attention.

Little over a year ago, ethanol was winning the hearts and wallets of both Main Street and Wall Street, with promises of greater U.S. energy independence, fewer greenhouse gases and help for the farm economy. Today, the corn-based biofuel is under siege.

As one commentator in the Daily Republic noted, “The Wall Street Journal all but announced the death of biofuels.”

“Ethanol Craze Cools As Doubts Multiply,� reads the headline of the obituary in the newspaper that, famously, failed to foresee the 1987 stock market crash, the dot com bust of 2000 and the great mortgage meltdown of 2007.

The article includes several quotes from RFA president Bob Dinneen, along with his flattering pen-and-ink likeness.

Against all the criticism and lobbying, “we’re David in this fight,” says Bob Dinneen, the ethanol industry’s top lobbyist. Mr. Dinneen says the industry has been made a scapegoat for food price increases that are due to many factors, including higher oil prices and growing overseas demand for grain. He also faults the lack of a mature U.S. distribution network that would make it easier for consumers to get ethanol. His group, called the Renewable Fuels Association, and the National Corn Growers Association have formed a coalition to “unify the voices” in the ethanol community, he says.

Bob even gets in the last word of the 2000 word article.

Mr. Dinneen, who has been lobbying on ethanol so long he’s known as the “reverend of renewable fuels,” says he’s “reasonably confident” Congress will raise the ethanol mandate. He says he’s talking with the military, labor groups, Southern black churches and others about how ethanol can help them. “We’ve got to build the biggest, baddest coalition we can.”