Taxpayers Subsidizing Record Ethanol Profits

The nation’s leading food processor is making big profits from ethanol. Archer Daniels Midland has had two straight years of record profits. And in its latest quarter, the company nearly set another record. Dustin Dwyer has more:

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The nation’s leading food processor is making big profits from ethanol. Archer Daniels Midland has had two straight years of record profits. And in its latest quarter, the company nearly set another record. Dustin Dwyer has more:


ADM’s profits on corn processing, which includes ethanol production, more than doubled in its latest quarter. Total profits for the period were about $400 million.


Daniel Kammen studies energy policy at the University of California – Berkeley. He says while ADM is making lots of money from corn-based ethanol, future profits could go to companies that make ethanol from switchgrass and other woody products.


“It’s really the first companies that switch into cellulosic sources that I think are going to be the big winners, because they’re going to capture the environmental prize as well as the offsetting gasoline prize.”


ADM executives have laid out a new strategy that includes plans to expand ethanol production from fuel sources other than corn.


Daniel Kammen notes that there might not even be a market for ethanol if not for government subsidies, which also helped ADM reap its bigger profits.


For the Environment Report, I’m Dustin Dwyer.

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Online News Versus the Sunday Paper

A new study compares reading the news online to having the paper dropped at your door – and it has no good news for lovers of the Sunday paper. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:

Transcript

A new study compares reading the news online to having the paper dropped at your door – and it
has no good news for lovers of the Sunday paper. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen
Kelly reports:

Mike Toffel is a researcher at UC Berkeley, where he reads the newspaper on a personal digital
assistant – or PDA. That’s a handheld computer. He wondered how much carbon dioxide that
activity released, compared to reading a hard copy of the paper. So, he looked at the design, use
and disposal of a PDA versus having the New York Times delivered from a printer 50 miles away.
Toffel found that production and delivery of the paper released more heat trapping gases.


“Reading the news for over a year on your PDA emits about 5 kilograms of carbon dioxide per
year whereas with a newspaper, depending on the scenario, it’s 160 to 700 kilograms per year.”


Toffel says he doesn’t really expect folks to start curling up with their computers on Sunday
morning. But his study may prompt people to read other things online, and use less energy in the
process.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Kelly.

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