Nicholas Hollis,
president of the Washington, D.C.-based not-for-profit Agribusiness Council,
said many farmers oppose the bill and are being bullied by big business -
specifically Decatur, Ill.-based agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland Co. -
into backing it. ADM produces roughly 30% of the ethanol in the country and
dominates the trucking and ethanol transportation industry, Hollis said.
Hollis called the idea
the "greatest snake oil of the 21st century."
ADM executives
declined to comment.
Hollis and other
critics contend that ethanol is far from the precious panacea its supporters
profess.
"They're using
this demagogue approach, using fear and slogans and lies about cleaner air and
cleaner emissions and helping the farmer," Hollis said. "Every one of
these claims turned out to be hollow."
Ethanol lowers gas
mileage, damages cars, deflates the price of corn, pollutes the air, uses
enormous amounts of water and requires more energy to produce than it saves,
they say.
"It's a net
loser," he said. "If we converted every ear of corn in this country,
we'd be more dependent on the Middle East than we are now."
The Wisconsin
Petroleum Council, an agency representing oil producers that supply the state's
gas, also opposes the bill, said Erin Roth, executive director.
"We're just
opposed to creating another boutique fuel in Wisconsin," she said. "We
use ethanol because of politics. Do we want to use ethanol? No."
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