THE DAILY BLADE: Ethanol Bad For The Environment?
According to a new computer model, if all vehicles in the U.S. were to tank up on a mostly ethanol fuel blend by 2020 levels of smog, ozone and particulates in the air would increase, especially in the Northeast and Los Angeles, causing 200 more deaths per year from respiratory problems. Stanford University atmospheric chemist Mark Jacobson, who authored the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology, tells The Associated Press, "If you want to use ethanol, fine, but … [i]t's no better than gasoline, apparently slightly worse." According to his estimates, roughly 4,700 people die each year from smog-related respiratory ailments, and switching to the ethanol will not solve this health problem.
And Matt Hartwig, spokesman for the ethanol lobby group, Renewable Fuels Association, counters that Jacobson’s computer model is moot since there will not be a wholesale switch to ethanol blends by 2020, and that ethanol derived from cellulose (lumber scrap, for instance) rather than from corn, can reduce greenhouse gases, which some believe causes global warming and worsens smog.
In his State of the Union speech in January, President Bush outlined a goal to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent over 10 years by substituting ethanol and other alternative fuels.
Young People More Gung-Ho On Iraq War Than Their Grandparents
A New York Times/CBS News Poll conducted in mid-March that was somehow overlooked by the MSM finds that "younger people are more supportive of the war and the president than any other age group." Among the notable findings:
† 29 percent of people 65 and older believe the U.S. was right to take military action against Iraq, as compared to 48 percent of those aged 18 to 29 years;
† 29 percent of people 65 and older approved of how President Bush was doing his job, as compared to 40 percent of 18-29 year olds; and
† 34 percent of people 65 and older said we were "very likely or somewhat likely to succeed in Iraq," as compared to 49 percent of 18-29 year olds.
The nationwide telephone poll of 1,362 adults was conducted March 7-11, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
AP Promises More Than It Delivers
An article by The Associated Press on the Supreme Court decision to uphold the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 (Gonzales, Attorney General v. Carhart et al) with the headline, "A Closer Look At Partial Birth Abortions" did not include a single illustration of the procedure to look at. Here they are, for readers who want "a closer look."
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