Ethanol requirements and the EPA

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency rejected on Thursday a request to cut the quota for the use of ethanol in cars, concluding, for the time being, that the goal of reducing the nation’s reliance on oil trumps any effect on food prices from making fuel from corn.

How backwards! How are we reducing the nation's reliance on oil by giving people a crutch (a.k.a. ethanol and biofuel) to rely on? We'll still be "reliant" on oil, just in a different form--and we'll destroy the wetlands and rainforests further to get it. How about the government recommend and implement a program for ACTUALLY curbing our addiction to oil that would require people to lower their usage of the stuff through lifestyle choices, and would require companies lower their usage BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY? (For example, last night at the grocery store, strawberries from California were cheaper than strawberries from B.C. ... We live in B.C.! How can you ship strawberries hundreds of miles and still sell them for cheaper? It's an adddddiction! And a shame. And a real slap in the face to B.C. farmers.)

It's time to own up to it, folks - times have changed! And yet, this is sooo not new news...