Biofuels: Who is lying on ethanol?

Is big oil really paying off all of ethanol's critics?

Corn-based ethanol has been under attack from every angle imaginable for the last few years. Water, runoff, pesticides, fertilizers, food prices and more have all been utilized by numerous academics throughout not just the US, but the world, as evidence of corn's dark side.

Yet, there are some in the US auto industry, as well as in Congress, that call all of these criticisms 'fabrications' funded by big oil.

In terms of food prices, for example, corn supporters claim that wheat and rice are to blame, not corn. Moreover, drought and other natural problems are also at fault.

Certainly, other factors are involved in the world's grain shortage. Still, if you grow less wheat and rice to grow more corn, isn't corn then part of the problem? Likewise, if the world is heading into a time of greater-than-normal drought, is it really a good idea to use food to power our energy guzzling vehicles?

Corn-based ethanol might not be as-guilty-as-charged, but it's far from innocent, and those that refuse every criticism of corn are starting to look like typical, pork-beholden politicians and self-interested corporatists - and every bit as evil as those in big oil.