Ethanol disinformation and dirty tricks

An article in the The New Yorker magazine, The Dirty Trickster, portrays the life of Roger Stone, a political operative who takes credit for roles in Watergate, the Florida recount, and the fall of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. And that's not even the half of it. If Stone's story can be believed, there's certainly a lesson about how you get ahead in Washington: play dirty.

A few folks from the farmer side of the ethanol debate are finding political life to be rough and tumble these days. A recent story in Agriculture Online reported Iowa Senator Charles Grassley's claim that a lobbying group funded by the Grocery Manufacturers Association engineered a "smear campaign" against the ethanol industry.

The anti-ethanol forces have blamed the alternative fuel for everything from high gas prices and global food shortages to global warming and deforestation. A beltway public relations firm hired by the Grocery Manufacturers Association was responsible for the campaign, Grassley (R-IA) said on the Senate floor last week.

Industry defenders, like Charlie Martin, an ethanol plant grain buyer, point out that a "dollar rise in the cost of a gallon of gasoline has up to three times the impact on food prices as a dollar rise in the price of a bushel of corn." Higher commodity prices are to blame for only about 20% of the cost of a rise in food prices, corn growers say.

Looking in from press row here, it appears that the "disinformation campaign" has made a big impact on the public perception of ethanol. What a switch from the time not so long ago when corn was viewed as green for its contribution to renewable energy.

One of Roger Stone's rules is "Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counterattack." Don't be surprised if the war of words continues....