Charles Dickens, who visited in 1842, described Washington as a "city of magnificent intentions" because of the incongruity between the city's grand aspirations and muddy, swampy actuality. Today Washington's discrepancy is not architectural but political. It is between the extraordinary powers and competences the administration claims it has and the administration's inability to be clear or plausible about what it is doing. ...more

March 15, 2009

Food retailers are wrongfully blaming the ethanol industry for jacking up the cost of a Thanksgiving Day feast, the Renewable Fuels Association said Tuesday. ...more

November 26, 2008

Food retailers are wrongfully blaming the ethanol industry for jacking up the cost of a Thanksgiving Day feast, the Renewable Fuels Association said today. ...more

November 25, 2008

Farmers will harvest nearly 9 percent fewer acres of corn this year than last year, in part because of Midwest flooding that has damaged a portion of the crop, the government reported Monday. ...more

July 1, 2008

A controversial plan to build an ethanol production facility at the Port of Tampa has been shelved in favor of seeking financing to build an ethanol storage facility there instead, the project's sponsor said in an interview Tuesday. ...more

June 18, 2008

Not long ago, the fledgling ethanol industry was the darling of investors, farmers, the federal government and a lot of Americans who liked the idea of turning corn into fuel. ...more

May 22, 2008

The U.S. and European Union should reconsider a shift to biofuels that has helped increase food prices worldwide by turning agricultural land over to energy crops, American economist Jeffrey Sachs said Monday. ...more

May 6, 2008

The cost of food spiked right on cue last year when economists warned that the country's thirst for ethanol would drive up the cost of the grain used to feed livestock for meat, dairy and other foods. ...more

October 9, 2007