Things seem to be going wrong, what with high fuel prices and talk of famine in parts of the world because of grain shortages. The president blames the rising cost and short supply of fuel on the war in Ukraine and on American oil companies. (“Biden bullies oil companies over ‘well above normal’ profits,” Mark Moore, Callie Patterson, New York Post, June 15, 2022.) And over the Fourth of July weekend he criticized gas stations for not lowering their prices. (New York Post web site, 07-05-2022)
It reminds me of Jimmy Carter’s 1977 television address to the nation to explain the reasons for rising gasoline and heating oil prices that had the American public suffering and seeking relief. Among those reasons, he said U.S. domestic production could not be substantially increased due to depletion of limited reserves and that soon world oil production would not be able to meet demand. The people always look to their leaders to explain the reason for any crisis that causes suffering and to give them ready remedies to address the crisis and relieve the suffering. Like President Carter forty-five years ago, President Biden is probably relying on his experts to form his opinion and solution.
The Italian author, Alessandro Manzoni, described a famine that took place in 17th century northern Italy in his novel, The Betrothed. Because of an extended drought and poor crops there was insufficient grain and, therefore, a scarcity of bread. However, conventional wisdom for why the scarcity existed was that the bakers were hoarding flour and making “big profits.” Angry citizens made demands for government officials to do something about the problem. Their wishes were “converted into law” when the magistrates fixed a ceiling price for commodities, including bread. But as the author noted, “no edicts in the world, however bold they may be, have the power to reduce the need for food or to produce crops out of season.” (Id., 191.) Nevertheless, the Grand Chancellor saw that “a fair price” was desirable and “thought that an order from him would be enough to produce it.” Of course it didn’t work, and in Milan mobs formed and there were bread riots. Manzoni analogized the chancellor’s thinking to that of someone altering her birth certificate believing it will make her younger. It seems that blaming the oil industry, and service station owners in particular, for today’s high gas prices is like the 17th century Milanese blaming bakeries for bread shortages and high prices.
The American Petroleum Institute has said that the ability of refineries to produce additional gasoline and diesel in the United States is limited because half of the refining capacity has had to be taken offline to convert to renewable energy production. (Joint letter from American Petroleum Institute and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers to President Joe Biden, June 15, 2022.) That kind of renewable energy is called “bio-fuel” or “biomass.” (Article, “What is Renewable Energy,” Penn State Extension, July 15, 2009.) In this instance, it is corn.
The United States has enough petroleum and natural gas resources, based on current technology, to make the nation energy self-sufficient as it showed itself to be up until two years ago. All of this is going on while there are reports that an actual famine may result in parts of the world due to limited grain harvests and exports from Ukraine this year, which is because of the ongoing war and Russian control of Ukraine’s sea ports. (Vadim Ghirda, Associated Press, June 24, 2022.) While corn can be converted to fuel, petroleum cannot be converted to food. It seems unwise, if not immoral, to be converting food to burn as fuel. And while bio-fuel corn may not be food-grade corn, it is being grown in place of food-grade grains and thereby taking away from the production of food which, in a time of need, seems wrong-headed if not wrong morally. I would guess that the human body can more efficiently convert a helping of corn into energy than can a refinery using a whole silo of it. Truth is that the world needs food. The United States is blessed with resources. It can help avoid a real humanitarian crisis by sending its “bio energy” in a form fit for human consumption to those who are in dire need of it and by producing fossil energy in a form fit for agricultural and commercial consumption.
Chip Williams is a Northsider.
