Biofuels backlash in US as food costs hit home

Fri, 09 May 2008 20:51:37 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

A biofuels backlash has erupted in major ethanol producer the United States, as lawmakers and experts debate the merits of converting food to fuel to support America's age-old love affair with the automobile.

With gasoline at record prices at US pumps, and soaring corn, rice and wheat costs sparking a global food crisis this year with deadly riots in several nations, some have questioned the wisdom of President George W. Bush's call for higher US biofuel mandates that divert US crops, like corn, to fuel production.

"Why are we putting food in our gas tanks instead of our stomachs?" Richard Reinwald, owner of Reinwald's Bakery in Huntington, New York, asked members of Congress at a hearing last week on skyrocketing food costs.

Members of Bush's own Republican party are turning on him, including Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who called on Congress to undo "America's ethanol mistake."

Tags: food crisis, biofuels

Spain claims $500 million in sunken treasure

Fri, 09 May 2008 20:44:18 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Am just curious where these 500,000$ treasure came from in the first place.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

(AP) -- Spain formally laid claim Thursday to a shipwreck that yielded a $500 million treasure, saying it has proof the vessel was Spanish.

Officials demanded the return of the booty recovered last year by a U.S. deep-sea exploration firm, saying the 19th-century shipwreck at the heart of the dispute is the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes - a Spanish warship sunk by the British navy southwest of Portugal in 1804 with more than 200 people on board.

Tampa, Fla.-based Odyssey Marine Exploration on Thursday disputed Spain's claim. In May 2007, Odyssey announced that it had discovered a wreck in the Atlantic - and its cargo of 500,000 silver coins and other artifacts worth an estimated $500 million.

Spain argues that the entire treasure should be returned because naval vessels remain the property of the nation that flagged them, regardless of where they lie, under the principle of sovereign immunity.

Tags: treasure finding

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Biofuels backlash in US as food costs hit home

Spain claims $500 million in sunken treasure