|
(Continued from page 38)
• NEBRASKA WHEELER -8,156 -50%
• SOUTH DAKOTA HAND -17,822 -50%
• KANSAS GREELEY -39,818 -49%
• WISCONSIN POLK -6,186 -48%
• NEBRASKA CEDAR -7,898 -48%
• SOUTH DAKOTA DAY -43,790 -48%
• SOUTH DAKOTA FAULK -5,732 -48%
• SOUTH DAKOTA BUTTE -13,183 -47%
• NORTH DAKOTA GRANT -26,396 -47%
• KANSAS BARBER -9,766 -47%
• NEBRASKA BOONE -8,438 -47%
• KANSAS WICHITA -21,908 -46%
• WISCONSIN TREMPEALEAU -15,415 -46%
• SOUTH DAKOTA CODINGTON -13,639 -46%
• NEBRASKA STANTON -12,527 -45%
• The AP focused on counties that lost more than 4,400 acres of because they represent the top 25 percent of counties based on loss of conservation land.
•
Q&A: Ethanol, oil and what it means to be green
DINA CAPPIELLO, Associated Press
MATT APUZZO, Associated Press
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Q: What is the ethanol mandate?
• A: In 2007, Congress passed a law requiring oil companies to blend corn ethanol into the gasoline supply. That requirement started at 9 billion gallons and has risen each year since. This year, it's about 13 billion gallons. Barack Obama, who was running for president against a crowded field of Democrats in the Iowa caucuses, was a champion for this law. And with oil prices high and imports climbing, President George W. Bush signed it. Politicians in both parties predicted homegrown corn would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming and help wean the country off foreign sources of oil.
• Q: Sounds straightforward. Green energy, right?
• A: Not really. From the beginning, environmentalists were skeptical of this program. Even people on Obama's environmental team had doubts. Ethanol comes with all kinds of environmental baggage, like the fertilizer used to grow corn and the coal and natural gas that fuel ethanol plants. The ethanol policy also helped send corn prices rising, which encouraged farmers to plant more corn, in some cases on (Continued on page 40)
|
|
