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<p align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><font face="Arial" size="2">Hijacked Legacy: Ethanol and the Highway
Trust</font></b></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align:center"><font size="2"><font face="Arial">by<br>
Nicholas E. Hollis*</font></font></p>
<p align="center" style="text-align:center"><font face="Arial">
</font><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><font face="Arial" size="1">(All Rights Reserved)</font></span></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Americans love the freedom of the open
road, from endless Western blacktop to winding country gravel, to the
vast network of interstate, limited-access, super-highways which have
strengthened links across the Nation over the past quarter-century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>But how many recall that pioneer legislator � Jennings
Randolph, then representing West Virginia�s 2<sup>nd</sup>
congressional district in Congress � whose spade work in the 1930s
first advocated the creation of a national system of inter-linked
superhighways?</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">As the nation scrambles toward new
consciousness on homeland security, it might be worthwhile to reconsider
Randolph�s joint resolution and speeches, beginning in 1936, which
called for the creation of a superhighway commission, eventually leading
to the construction of the modern highway system we take for granted
today.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">In the depth of the Great Depression,
Jennings Randolph saw the nation�s need for improved infrastructure as
a vital component of national defense as well as providing economic and
safety benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Originally
conceived as a toll-financed, �transcontinental� system,
Randolph�s proposed construction initiative would have provided
millions of jobs and a massive economic stimulus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">His idea was ahead of its time, seemingly
more visionary than practical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In
fact, the successful opening of the Pennsylvania Turnpike�s first
section in 1940 provided important real-time support for Randolph�s
enthusiasm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But the
country�s attention was focused on the growing conflict in Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>During World War II, Randolph recognized the strategic importance
of Germany�s vast �autobahn� highway system in launching its
blitzkrieg-mechanized divisions on its continental neighbors,
particularly Poland, France, and Belgium.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">In the mid-1950s, when the Eisenhower
Administration adopted the interstate highway concept and put the
financial appropriation engine behind it, Jennings Randolph was serving
not in Congress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Yet
through his earlier exertions, he could still lay claim to being
�Father of the Interstate Highway System.�</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">A decade later, as a United States
Senator for West Virginia and as chairman of the powerful Committee on
Environment and Public Works, Randolph added significant infrastructure
projects, including the I-79 corridor, an important north/south
interstate which links central West Virginia with Pittsburgh and other
points north. </font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Many years down the road the interstate
highway system remains one of our nation�s great engineering
achievements � a crown jewel � providing links across America�s
bountiful expanse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At
interstate junctions, off access ramps, thousand of new towns and
businesses have sprouted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The
system has clearly �changed the face� of our country, as President
Dwight D. Eisenhower predicted.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">While we are more connected as a society
today, there are increasingly �thin spots and potholes� we would
like to ignore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Many
sections of the interstate highway system, along with other federal and
state roads are in dire need of general maintenance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Ask any trucker or transport professional how deteriorating
road/bridge infrastructure harms the economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>But the inattentive public seems oblivious to the fact that the
Highway Trust Fund (HTF) is being drained by hundreds of millions
annually siphoned directly to finance a growing ethanol fuel subsidy �
one of the greatest highway robbers in history!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Every dollar HTF loses via the ethanol exemption excise tax at
the pump is another dollar lost to build/maintain roads.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">The Bush Administration has estimated
that the HTF has been depleted by 28% due to ethanol use during this
year alone, and the problem will only worsen if the new boost for
ethanol which easily passed both houses of Congress is allowed to
continue and expand next term � as it most certainly will- without an
organized citizen response. The legislation calls for a mandated
tripling of ethanol use as a gasoline additive by 2012, with a projected
to cost of more than $10 billion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Ethanol�s success at raiding the HTF
provides clear testimony to the lobbying clout of Archer Daniels Midland
(ADM) with its minions of controlled agricultural and renewable energy
groups, and its lavish campaign contributions on both sides of the
political aisle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Next time
your vehicle slams into a pothole or shimmies over a bumpy patch of
rough road capable of shaking your suspension or exhaust system loose,
flattening a tire or bending an axle, ask yourself if the ethanol
subsidy enriching ADM (not the farmer!) is worth it?</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">In the quarter century since the ethanol
began its creep into the wallets and gas tanks of the motoring public
(first in Illinois, then Iowa and other corn-belt states, and now
beyond), neither the farmers nor<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the
road users have fared well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ethanol
producer claims of environmental benefits also appear dubious while
there is little doubt that engines function less efficiently with
ethanol, breaking down earlier and delivering reduced gas mileage
contrasted to conventional unleaded fuels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>These facts have rarely gained public attention, as the ethanol
�Reich� has been ruthless and methodical in silencing dissent.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Democracy and its institutions, like the
republic�s infrastructure, requires daily maintenance and vigilance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>When Jennings Randolph heard about the ethanol scheme back in the
late 1970s, he just shook his head: �It won�t help the people, and
it won�t reduce our dependence on overseas oil much either.�<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>As a big booster of renewable and synthetic fuels, dating back to
his early years, Randolph became chairman of the Agri-Energy Roundtable
(AER) after retiring from the Senate in 1985.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Later, the United Nations accredited AER forum became a major
battleground over these related issues, as aggressive ethanol promoters
sought to remake the association into another mouthpiece for ADM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Randolph, to his everlasting credit, and others, resisted, but
the juggernaut rolled on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Today,
his pioneering, populist spirit would surely be outraged with the sneaky
diversion of funds from road building/maintenance to ethanol.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">A study commissioned by Congress earlier
this year estimated that the
<a href="http://www.c4aqe.org/IS_ETHANOL_VIABLE/Milwaukee_Journal_excerpt.htm">ethanol expansion</a> provision in the
Senate-passed version of the energy legislation would reduce funding for
the HTF by more than $800 million next year. The biggest losers in this
scheme would be transportation departments and motorists, especially in
California, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>West Virginia would lose upwards of $90 million.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>The damage being done to our infrastructure is cumulative dating
back to earlier days of ethanol when Federal Highway Administration
officials calculated the losses to HTF at $225 million in 1984 and $480
million in 1986.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As ethanol
use has increased these HTF losses have grown disproportionately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Like greedy moths in the closet, the ethanol lobby�s political
contributions and sway with key farm states allows them to eat away at
the fabric of the Nation�s infrastructure. If we do not mobilize soon
to curb this highway robbery, there may not be much left of our roads
� or even our heritage and the underlying, old-fashioned values, which
engineered them in the first place.</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#FF0000">In July 2005, the passage
of the Energy Policy Act combined with previously enacted legislation
designed to shift the ethanol subsidy from the Highway Trust Fund (HTF)
to a direct raid on the U.S. Treasury. The ethanol lobby also garnered a
guaranteed mandate for new production levels at 2012. Thus, big ethanol
forced oil companies and motorists alike to swallow the additive and a
resultant steep gas spike at the pump. No one has yet figured out how to
replace the billions siphoned from the HTF for a quarter century, and
the nation's infrastructure remains in much need. Massive
diversions of corn from feed/food uses to ethanol -- also a result of
the Energy Policy Act -- have sparked large price hikes for meat, milk, other dairy products,
and beer at the nation's grocery stores.</font></p>
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<p align="right" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px">
<i><font size="2">Courtesy of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers</font></i></p>
<p align="center" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px">
<font face="Times New Roman" size="2">JENNINGS RANDOLPH LAKE</font></p>
<p align="left" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px">
<font face="Times New Roman" size="2">After leaving Capitol Hill
in 1985, U.S. Senator Jennings Randolph (D-WV) remained active in
private life for several years in Washington DC, Elkins WV, and
St. Louis MO. He spoke at the May 23, 1987 dedication of Jennings
Randolph Lake near Keyser, West Virginia. On the following day, he
led the American delegation and chaired the 8th annual Agri-Energy
Roundtable conference on food security issues in Geneva,
Switzerland.</font></td>
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<p> </p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Times New Roman"><b>Notes
for Further Reading</b></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">�Tax Nexus between Federal
Transportation, Energy and Environmental Policies� by David Bauer,
American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA),
Congressional Staff Presentation (June 4, 2002).</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">�Study on Ethanol Mandate Impact on S.
517� by Nick Economides, Hart Downstream Energy Services (April 2002).</font></p>
<p><font size="2"><font face="Arial">�In Rural Areas, Interstates
Build Their Own Economies� by Peter T. Kilborn, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">New
York Times</i> (July 14, 2001).</font></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"> �Public Roads: Special 40<sup>th</sup>
Anniversary Edition of Interstate System� by Richard F. Weingraff,
Federal Highway Administration/DOT (June 1996). </font></p>
<p><font size="2"><font face="Arial"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Congressional
Record</i>, Vol 80, Part 4 (March 24, 1936), p. 4322.</font></font></p>
<p><font size="2"><font face="Arial"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Congressional
Record,</i> Vol. 81, Part 2 (February 18, 1937), p. 1010.</font></font></p>
<p><font size="2"><font face="Arial"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Congressional
Record,</i> Vol. 84, Part 1 (January 18, 1939), p. 462.<br>
</font></font><font face="Arial" size="2">________________________________________________________________________________</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">Mr. Hollis is a director of Jennings
Randolph Recognition Project (JRRP) and president of The Agribusiness Council (ABC).</font></td>
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<P align=center><a href="../randolph.htm">Jennings Randolph</a></P>
<P align=center><FONT face=Arial size=2><a href="http://www.agribusinesscouncil.org/enrollment_form_jr.htm">Enrollment</a></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT face=Arial size=2><a href="http://www.agribusinesscouncil.org/contribution_form_jr.htm">Contribution</a></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT face=Arial size=2>Contributions to the "Jennings
Randolph Recognition Project" are tax-deductible </FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT face=Arial size=2>under IRS Code 501(c)(3) with
checks made payable to:</FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG>THE AGRIBUSINESS COUNCIL,
INC.</STRONG><BR>P.O. Box 5565<BR>Washington DC 20016<BR>Tel: (202)
296-4563<BR><a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a></FONT></P>
<P align=center><FONT face=Arial size=2><b><i>"Building bridges through
associations with peoples of the world"</i></b></FONT></P>
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