Gas tanks could guzzle half of U.S. corn yields.In his Jan. 23 State of the Union Address “State of the Union” redirects here. For other uses, see State of the Union (disambiguation). The State of the Union is an annual address in which the President of the United States reports on the status of the country, normally to a joint session of Congress (the , President Bush called for ramping up production of biofuels, such as ethanol ethanol (ĕth`ənōl') or ethyl alcohol, CH3CH2OH, a colorless liquid with characteristic odor and taste; commonly called grain alcohol or simply alcohol. from corn, to help cut U.S. dependency dependency In international relations, a weak state dominated by or under the jurisdiction of a more powerful state but not formally annexed by it. Examples include American Samoa (U.S.) and Greenland (Denmark). on foreign oil. A new report describes an ethanol-industry expansion already under way that is poised to boost corn-ethanol production by 160 percent within 2 years. However, such an increase may carry a high cost, says the report's author, agricultural economist Lester Les´ter n. 1. (Meteor.) A dry sirocco in the Madeira Islands. Brown of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. The 116 existing U.S. ethanol-fuel distilleries now use 53 million tons of corn. The 90 distilleries under or planned for construction would boost that demand to 139 million metric tons of corn, half of the projected 2008 U.S. harvest. U.S. farmers produce 40 percent of the world's corn and export 55 million tons. Brown argues that any change in the crop's availability for food and feed will propel pro·pel tr.v. pro·pelled, pro·pel·ling, pro·pels To cause to move forward or onward. See Synonyms at push. [Middle English propellen, from Latin world grain prices--including those of wheat and rice--"to levels never seen before," He explains, "These three crops compete for much of the same land."--J.R. |
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