Missouri Governor Matt Blunt says don’t blame ethanol for the rising cost of food for people… or animals for that matter.
In this story in the Springfield (MO) News-Leader, Blunt defended the state’s new 10 percent ethanol mandate… a measure that has come under fire in the state legislature this spring:
At a news conference in Springfield on Thursday, Blunt said soaring grocery bills are more due to higher energy costs for producing it and the “rapidly escalating worldwide demand for food.”
As more people on that planet “try to eat like Americans,” Blunt said, “food’s going to become more expensive.”
Blunt used China as an example of a nation with a hungrier population. The Republican governor said the average Chinese resident is eating 200 more calories per day today than just a few years ago.
“If you do the math, 1.3 billion times 200 calories is a lot of calories.”
Actually, it’s 260 billion more calories per day.
Blunt has promised he won’t sign any measure that repeals Missouri’s four-month-old mandate. Since he’s not running for re-election, it could be an issue that whoever succeeds him will have to tackle. The two main Republican and one main Democrat gubernatorial candidates have also said they are dedicated to renewable energy.