Ethanol Emergency?

Everything has been going right for ethanol, the corn-mash moonshine that began getting the country truly giddy earlier this year. But now that giddiness is gone.

Back in the giddy days, high gasoline prices had drivers complaining. Ethanol endorsements were coming from the White House, Silicon Valley and, as always, from those in the corn-growing heartland in between. A protracted war in the Middle East had rekindled the on-again, off-again talk of reducing dependence on foreign oil. We even had corn surpluses. Anybody and anything associated with ethanol was attracting attention and capital.

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