Osage Bio Energy bringing barley ethanol to the U.S. | Cleantech.com

I am pretty OK with using corn for ethanol production. The U.S. produces the vast majority of the world’s corn, and if other countries want our corn, they can pay for it and make American farmers rich or U.S. ethanol companies will make it into tax-break loaded auto fuel.

But the article linked above hits me where I live. This company, Osage Bio, wants to make ethanol out of barley. As you probably know, barley is a main ingredient of beer. Who knows what this will do to beer prices! If barley prices double and triple, what effect will that have on a pint of my favorite brew? How much barley do you think goes into making that $5.50 glass of beer? More than the 5¢ worth of corn in the box of corn flakes?

At this point I think the only option is to petition my Senator to issue a press release requesting that the tax on beer be reduced without him actually having to vote on a tax reduction!