OPEC Study Scapegoats Biofuels

When an OPEC nation comes out with an OPEC-funded study that scapegoats American ethanol, it requires a thorough fact check.

Oil is crucial to Qatar's economy, accounting for more than 70% of total government revenue, more than 60% of gross domestic product, and about 85% of export earnings. And at today’s MENA Grains Summit in Istanbul, an advisor to Qatar’s food security program blamed biofuels – oil’s biggest competition – for world hunger and growing agricultural prices.

Where did he get his facts? A study funded by the OPEC Fund for International Development. Unfortunately for them, their argument doesn’t hold water. There is a pile of evidence – including the most recent World Bank working paper and World Development Movement report – that demonstrates that ethanol is not to blame for higher food costs. These studies have proven that ethanol’s use of grain has, at best, a minimal impact on grocery prices and that a variety of other factors – including marketing, transporting, fertilizer, weather, a weak dollar and the price of oil – have a much more significant impact on food prices globally.

It’s hardly surprising that an OPEC nation like Qatar would misconstrue America’s ability to feed and fuel the world – the more ethanol we make and use here in the U.S., the less oil we need to import from Qatar and other OPEC nations.

No one should be fooled by this sham of a study. The truth is, America’s farmers are getting more corn out of every acre thanks to better science in seeds, precision farming, and technology and they will continue to meet our nation’s food, feed, fuel, and export obligations. Just this past year, American grown, renewable ethanol replaced as much oil as we import from Saudi Arabia. And ethanol can replace more oil if we open up the fuels market – making E15 widely available for cars made in the past decade and installing Flex Fuel pumps for Flex Fuel vehicles.

For more than 50 years, the OPEC oil cartel has held America over a barrel of foreign oil. If we enact policies that allow all fuels to compete in an open market, we can finally break the hold that OPEC has on America – without any impact on global food supply.