The people who are saying ethanol is bad are just plain wrong.

The people who are saying ethanol is bad are just plain wrong. But it isn't a huge victory -- you wouldn't go out and rebuild our economy around corn-based ethanol.

Converting to fuel ethanol will not require a big change in the economy. We are already ethanol ready. If ethanol were available on the supply side, the demand is there.

It will either be a wonderful way to access some of the country's best renewable resources or, under cover of environmental rhetoric, foster a whole new generation of dirty plants. No one can say for sure right now how this will go.

It's really too bad. What we're seeing is sort of the backpedaling that undermines these commitments.

Making ethanol from corn is a good thing if you want to offset fossil fuels from overseas. On the greenhouse gas side of things, it is not clear if corn, as grown today, is a good thing. We just don't know yet, but it appears to be a mildly good thing.