On January 29, Pimentel, a professor of ecology at Cornell University who has been researching the corn ethanol issue for more than two decades, published another report on the costs of producing motor fuel from grain. His article, which has seven co-authors, appeared in the journal Human Ecology. In the article, “Food Versus Biofuels: Environmental and Economic Costs,” Pimentel and his fellow researchers found that “using food and feed crops for ethanol production has brought increases in the prices of US beef, chicken, pork, eggs, breads, cereals, and milk of 10 percent to 20 percent.” It concludes “Using food crops to produce ethanol raises major nutritional and ethical concerns.

During a brief telephone interview on Thursday, Pimentel told me that he continues to be amazed that Congress still supports the idea of corn ethanol.

Pimentel’s latest report estimates that the energy return on energy invested in cellulosic ethanol is minus 68 percent.