Panacea or Pandoras Box:Ethanol

Reverberations are increasing from the corngrowers and environmentalist ethanol fiasco. Major oil companies are rethinking plans for increasing or building new refinery capacity in reaction to congressional fiats for more use of ethanol. This will insure high gas prices for years. When added to the problems already extant from corn based ethanol production, i. e. higher food prices, greater pollution,increased use of water resources , greater health risks and taxes to subsidize the production; it is becoming more and more evident that ethanol is not a panacea but a Pandora's Box.