Greening the U.S. Capitol: but at what cost?
As part of Speaker Pelosi's "Green the Capitol" initiative, the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) awarded $596,000 to Octagon Services of Laurel, Md. (In FY2008, the AOC received about $335 million for salaries and maintenance of the U.S. Capitol Building, grounds, and the House and Senate office buildings). The money will be used to design and build the second E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) fueling station in the District of Columbia. While I support non-gasoline fueling (biodiesel anyone?), I am a bit concerned about ethanol. It is less efficient than gasoline, mileage-wise. But my biggest concern is ethanol's effect on agricultural practices.
As more American farmers grow corn to meet surging ethanol demand -- the 2005 energy bill required ethanol production double, to 7.5 billion gallons a year -- corn prices shoot upwards. And other prices rise alongside as farmers abandon soybeans or wheat or whatnot to plant more corn. Prices for other products produced by feeding animals corn (meat, poultry, eggs, etc.) also rise. These steep increases are hard on low-income families, and on the developing world -- the U.S. is the world's largest corn producer and exporter. If more corn goes to ethanol and less is exported, the price will rise.
If we were making cellulose-based ethanol (ethanol from inedible plant material), like they do in Brazil, I wouldn't be so concerned. But as it stands, we're making it from edible corn.
Corn subsidies are a highly divisive issue – just read Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire or Omnivore's Dilemma for a well-researched look at how corn subsidies affect everything from feed lot practices to the availability of food additives like high fructose corn syrup. And the subsidies are often going to farmer's who are doing quite well, thanks.
So, all this to say that while I'm thrilled the U.S. Capitol is looking to reduce its carbon footprint via recycling paper, composting unused food, switching to LEDs, and upgrading their ancient, greenhouse-gas belching power plant, I have some misgivings. Yes, moving U.S. Capitol vehicles away from gasoline and toward E85 is greener. But I'd rather we get the most bang for our collective taxpayer buck and demand that members of Congress to take a look at the (bloated) farm bill (H.R. 2419). Getting them to address subsidies, irrigation practices, and the application of petro-based fertilizers would be greener still.
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