Doyle Clings to Failed Ethanol Policy

Doyle doesn’t want to give up the ethanol mandate.

Wisconsin’s agriculture secretary is lashing out at a GOP proposal to halt the mandatory expansion of corn-based ethanol.

Two dozen U.S. senators, including White House nominee John McCain, want the Environmental Pollution Agency to restructure its rules requiring more ethanol from corn by 2022.

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Rod Nilsestuen, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Affairs, calls the GOP plan the wrong medicine.

Without the recent increase in renewable fuels, he said gas prices would be even higher today.

This is flat out wrong.

But groups like the International Food Policy Research Institute and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations are pointing to ethanol production for biofuel as responsible for between 10 and 30 percent of the rise in food costs, The New York Times has reported.

Doyle has based a good chunk of his economic policy on biofuels - especially ethanol.  He’s not going to back down off of it no matter what the facts actually are.