To the editor:

Now is the time to scrap the failed ethanol fuel experiment. Not only is it a fuel source that cannot exist in the marketplace without massive government subsidies, but it uses a resource (corn) that is in shorter supply than ever and has increased in price by 50 percent in the last six weeks. Last year, ethanol production used 40 percent of the available domestic supply and, this year, more corn was used for it than for feed. Yet, it provides less than 1 percent of fuel used worldwide and it is still less efficient than other fuels.

Corn makes up a large portion of the 60 percent of our economy that relies on exports and, though the highest acreage since the 1930s was planted this year, the drought has severely impacted corn production. We may be beginning to feel it in the marketplace, but other countries will experience greater hunger and hunger-related diseases with the shortage.  Many world organizations have called for the suspension, or repeal, of the EPA-mandated ethanol use rules. Even the “green” lobby decries the deforestation that goes with the push for ethanol.

It would have been better if the government had hitched its wagon to natural gas vehicles than listening to the ethanol lobby. Change course now.