Renewable Mandates Examined, Offshore Drilling Takes Off and Shale's Continued Growth
Mark Green
Posted November 12, 2013
Ethanol Investigation: The Dirty Cost of the Green Power Push
Associated Press: CORYDON, Iowa — The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America's push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply.
Even the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a cornfield.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
With the Iowa political caucuses on the horizon in 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama made homegrown corn a centerpiece of his plan to slow global warming. And when President George W. Bush signed a law that year requiring oil companies to add billions of gallons of ethanol to their gasoline each year, Bush predicted it would make the country "stronger, cleaner and more secure."
But the ethanol era has proven far more damaging to the environment than politicians promised and much worse than the government admits today.
As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found.
Read more: http://huff.to/1ciN908
More industry news:
- Prairies Vanish in U.S. Push for Green Energy: http://bit.ly/HL0ZPx
- Oil Companies Go Deep – Offshore Drilling Has Taken Off: http://on.wsj.com/18mCIG7
- Thanks to Shale, U.S. to be Top Oil Producer by 2015, IEA Says: http://bloom.bg/HRtmfy
- British Water Group Report Says Shale Drilling Risks Can Be Mitigated: http://bloom.bg/HQa36j
- Report Tackles Oil Sands Claims: http://bit.ly/16Wh7qJ
- Auto Group Says E15 May Damage Vehicles: http://bit.ly/1817NTq
About The Author
Mark Green joined API after a career in newspaper journalism, including 16 years as national editorial writer for The Oklahoman in the paper’s Washington bureau. Previously, Mark was a reporter, copy editor and sports editor at an assortment of newspapers. He earned his journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma and master’s in journalism and public affairs from American University. He and his wife Pamela have two grown children and six grandchildren.