As always, you have given me food for thought. I knowi nothing else about the bill but what I just recently read about it. I’m still happy for BSC and happy about the idea of an energy corridor that coordinates efforts.

Part of my enthusiasm about an energy corridor office stems from the idea that a coordinated effort on renewable fuels could possibly move switch grass and other biomass fuels forward instead of corn ethanol (and keep an agreeable balance with our fossil fuel reserves, as well). That said, I’m still learning about corn ethanol myself and have heard such varying reports about it that I never know what to think.

I do completely agree with you that economic development (or any type of progress) should never be mandated. It’s great to create an energy coordinating office, but I never imagined that office telling people what to do…I pictured the office as a network center where energy businesses could feed off each other and innovate on their own. I do believe North Dakota would do very well in a situation like that. But being told what to do? No, that shouldn’t be. That will never work in the long run.

Isn’t that common sense? I may be being naive. I assume everyone–including Senator Dorgan, I guess–just wants to help people out. Maybe it’s more about control than I thought.

North Dakota is a leader in energy production of many varieties. That has not necessarily been the product of forceful legislation. For example, the coal gasification plant or the proprietary drying processes used at Coal Creek Station. Or the Quick-crete that’s made from fly ash at Coal Creek Station, a superior material which comprises the bulk of the newly constructed energy center at BSC. These are the products of ingenuity, not of legislative mandate.

I hate to rain on the parade, but we have to make sure that things are not rammed down people’s throats. Look what the corn-based ethanol subsidies and regulations did, for example. The price of corn shot up. Many producers switched to corn, causing the supply of other crops to diminish. That means that those prices jumped as well. Livestock feed prices increased, which resulted in higher meat and dairy prices. Corn is an ingredient in just about EVERYTHING we eat in the USA, so now food prices jump. All so that someone can collect a subsidy on a fuel that is a bust. Ethanol doesn’t have the thermodynamic potential of gasoline, no matter how efficiently you burn it, so the whole thing is the wrong direction in the first place…and we haven’t even addressed the costs of its production and distribution.

If I haven’t driven anyone away yet, let’s not forget the staggering statistics that I heard on this bill. There are THOUSANDS of pork projects in it. I dare say that this might be one of them. What happened to all the reform that was promised in the last election? Whether a program is worthwhile or not, tucking it away into omnibus bills or even irrelevant legislation is not leadership. Expenditures of millions of dollars deserve to be approved or disapproved on their own merits.

Clint
BismarckMandanBlog.com