State Debate: Corn ethanol not only answer to gas problem
Corn ethanol won't be only answer to gas problem, says the Appleton Post-Crescent.
Fuel or food? While corn-based ethanol isn't entirely culpable for our hike in grocery bills or the riots in Haiti, skepticism over ethanol is growing -- and understandably so.
Twenty-six senators, including Republican John McCain, are asking the Environmental Protection Agency to cut this year's requirement for 9 billion gallons of corn ethanol in half to ease food costs. Lawmakers have required refiners to ramp up ethanol use more than five times -- from 7 billion gallons last year to 36 billion a year by 2022.
We shouldn't abandon corn ethanol, but rather use it as a bridge as we continue to look into other alternative forms of energy, including cellulosic ethanol production from wood chips, switchgrass and even garbage.
We can't rely on any one thing to save us. And we have to remember how interconnected we are to the rest of the planet in our search for solutions.
FBI balked at torture, notes the Kenosha News.
The FBI felt the Bush administration's harsh treatment of detainees, which top Bush officials repeatedly tried to justify, was wrong.
A report by the Justice Department's inspector general, long delayed because of infighting over how much should be made public, praised FBI agents for refusing to join harsh and abusive interrogation techniques by the military and CIA in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. The agents described some of the techniques as "borderline torture."
The FBI's former head of counterterrorism, Pasquale D'Amuro, told The Wall Street Journal, "I honestly don't believe these techniques were effective. And, frankly, I thought it was an embarrassment for our country to be engaged in this type of activity."
A lingering embarrassment, we would add.
Story of Huebsch and Real ID not as simple as liberals thought, says the La Crosse Tribune.
We had a "stop the presses" moment the other day.
The Capital Times praised Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, the conservative West Salem Republican, for shifting $22 million from Real ID to help balance the state budget. The Madison paper said "he deserves praise from civil libertarians."
But the speaker's position is that the government isn't ready to implement Real ID, the federal program to make state driver's licenses and other ID cards acceptable for "official purposes" of homeland security, so it makes more sense to use that money now to plug a hole in the budget.
In the end, the issue was moot. Gov. Jim Doyle restored the Real ID money to the budget.
But let's hold that honorary membership card for the American Civil Liberties Union. Huebsch probably doesn't want that.
Why tourism is up in Brown County, as seen by the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
With a nod to Saturday Night Live's self-help guru Stuart Smalley: "We're good enough, we're smart enough, and doggone it, people like us."
How else to explain why tourism spending was up last year in Brown County, contrary to a statewide trend?
Not to be smug, but a boost in tourism doesn't occur by accident. There's a lot to do and local officials do a good job of telling that story, but every bit as important is the fact that visitors generally report they felt welcomed by the community.
And did we mention the Green Bay Packers?
Associated Press
The Appleton Post-Crescent says we can't rely on corn ethanol to save us.
