Ethanol Makes Gasoline Costlier, Dirtier

In his State of the Union address, President Bush spoke a lot about energy independence and alternative energy sources such as ethanol. According to the president, ethanol is the magical elixir that will solve virtually every economic, environmental, and foreign policy problem on the horizon. In reality, it’s enormously expensive and wasteful.

Untruths and misconceptions about ethanol include:

Ethanol will lead to energy independence. If all the corn produced in America last year were dedicated to ethanol production (14.3 percent of it was), U.S. gasoline consumption would drop by 12 percent. For corn ethanol to completely displace gasoline consumption in this country, we would need to appropriate all U.S. cropland, turn it completely over to corn-ethanol production, and then find 20 percent more land for cultivation on top of that. . .

Light bulb moment in California: Should it ban the common bulb?

How many legislators does it take to change a light bulb?

In California, the answer is a majority — plus Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Decrying the inefficiency of the common light bulb, a Democratic Assemblyman from Los Angeles wants California to become the first state to ban it — by 2012. . .

Jerry Taylor from the Cato Institute will be on the show at 4:00

City begins laying groundwork for new living wage law

The Los Angeles City Council today rescinded a law expanding the “living wage” ordinance to workers at airport-area hotels and reached an agreement with business groups to replace it with legislation whose details were still being negotiated.

The council voted 14-0 to rescind the ordinance. It also voted 12-2 to ask the city attorney to draft legislation reflecting the agreement with the business community.

The council’s action came on the day of a deadline to respond to a referendum, which was submitted by hotel owners and the business community. The council had the choice to rescind the law or place the referendum on the May ballot. . .