Corn prices soar – put Ethanol industry under pressure

Floods in the Midwest have wiped out much of the USA's corn crop. Ethanol producers in the USA make the fuel from corn. With corn edging toward $8 per bushel the price of Ethanol will rise as will the price of corn consumers eat. There is much debate – is it more important we feed our families or use the corn for fuel to power our cars?

We have published numerous articles on the world outcry against using farm crops for fuel when people are starving in the world. It's getting stronger by the day. The use of alternate fuels is a good idea, but the IRL is of course playing with fire by latching onto the ethanol bandwagon – if the naysayers begin to become too numerous the IRL may find itself looking like a 'bad' guy in the consumers eye.

We like, instead, F1's idea of a hybrid car (KERS) whereby energy is captured and stored and then is available to use for short bursts of extra power when the driver calls for it. Electric is the future……electric generated not from pollution causing fossil fuels, but from Nuclear power plants and from KERS type systems. While a 100% electric car is not feasible for racing, a hybrid design that stores and uses electric to produce energy certainly is.