What would you do to bring the price of gas down by half, and get more horsepower for your buck at the same time? Would you lobby for it?

In Brazil they’ve been using ethanol since the 70s; it costs half what gas does. Tariffs won’t let us import ethanol from Brazil, a friendly neighbor, yet we continue to import untaxed oil from countries who are our enemies. Why? Blame it on lobbyists.

It costs eight times as much in energy to make ethanol from corn as from sugar cane. But the corn lobby keeps the subsidies high for farming corn, so we have a huge surplus: use it for ethanol, with additional subsidies. Sugar cane is a more efficient source of ethanol, and we grow lots, but the sugar lobby keeps the price of sugar twice what it costs elsewhere, and tariffs prevent us from importing either sugar or ethanol from countries that produce it. Thus Congress is paying billions in subsidies to get more ethanol produced while keeping in place tariffs and quotas that guarantee we can’t afford to use it. This means the public – you and I – are bearing the costs while big companies get rich (and keep highly paid lobbyists in Washington). And in the meantime, greenhouse gases increase to dangerous levels while we argue about it.

We need alternative energy we can afford. We can’t afford expensive lobbyists. So what can we do?

Band together. Call your congressman. Become informed and spread the word. Make Congress listen to the people, not the lobbyists for the rich.

Sen. Patty Murray: 202-224-2621.

Sen. Maria Cantwell: 202 224-3441

Rep. Rick Larsen: 202-225-2605

Mary Fiddler

Oak Harbor