Interesting…

WASHINGTON, June 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/—Two studies released today show that federal ethanol mandates have placed significant pressure on food prices, while any effect on gasoline prices has been “almost too small to measure.”

Dr. Thomas Elam of FarmEcon LLC, and Keith Collins, former chief economist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, submitted their new analyses to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Today is the end of EPA’s public comment period on a request from Texas Gov. Rick Perry to partially suspend the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) in light of serious economic harm caused by the current policy.

“The 2008/2009 increase in fuel production made possible by the RFS is almost too small to measure against the global energy market, but the effects on food prices and security are huge,” Elam notes. “The U.S. government should re-examine and reduce the RFS in light of the damage it can do to our food production capacity and the overall welfare of the country.”

Basically, government mandates relating to ethanol have done almost nothing to increase the availability of fuel but have done quite a bit to raise food prices.

Meaning all the ethanol mandates are doing is hurting us.  Which is something economists could have told the politicians a while ago.  It’s all supply and demand.  If a product, in this instance ethanol is in demand (meaning people actually want it) there will be no need to mandate its production or use.