Obama Under Pressure Over Role of Ethanol in Energy Policy

U.S. News & World Report
By Kent Garber
Posted November 21, 2008

Environmental groups are unhappy with his support of corn-based ethanol during the campaign

Environmentalists agree with President-elect Barack Obama on many points, but his policy on ethanol isn't one of them.

In the ongoing debate over the future of the country's energy policy, biofuels occupy a unique and precarious position: reviled in some quarters, championed in others. Ethanol producers have enjoyed meteoric rises in the amount of ethanol they can make and sell, but they also have been accused of harming the environment, prompting food riots abroad, and throwing away government money on unsustainable endeavors.

Environmentalists are asking Congress and the next administration for a far-reaching overhaul of the current biofuel policy.

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