Vanishing Wetlands, Polluted Streams, Erosion - Iowa Pays The Price For Ethanol

[hatrack]

EDIT

As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found.

Five million acres of land set aside for conservation — more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined — have vanished on Obama's watch. Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil. Sprayers pumped out billions of pounds of fertilizer, some of which seeped into drinking water, contaminated rivers and worsened the huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where marine life can't survive.

The consequences are so severe that environmentalists and many scientists have now rejected corn-based ethanol as bad environmental policy. But the Obama administration stands by it, highlighting its benefits to the farming industry rather than any negative impact.

Farmers planted 15 million more acres of corn last year than before the ethanol boom, and the effects are visible in places like south central Iowa. The hilly, once-grassy landscape is made up of fragile soil that, unlike the earth in the rest of the state, is poorly suited for corn. Nevertheless, it has yielded to America's demand for it.

EDIT

http://newsok.com/the-secret-dirty-cost-of-obamas-green-power-push/article/feed/612844

[safeinOhio]

1. Three dollar corn

Will solve that problem

[Nihil]

2. "But the Obama administration stands by it"

> As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres
> of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies
>
> Five million acres of land set aside for conservation — more than Yellowstone, Everglades
> and Yosemite National Parks combined — have vanished on Obama's watch.
> Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide
> that had been locked in the soil. Sprayers pumped out billions of pounds of fertilizer,
> some of which seeped into drinking water, contaminated rivers and worsened the huge
> dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where marine life can't survive.

He definitely brought "Change" but - apart from for the profit-chasers - he screwed "Hope".

And thanks to the usual BOG cheerleaders along with the resident ethanol booster, pointing out the
true cost of this policy is severely frowned upon.

[4dsc]

3. Bad link.