Political Quotes

“Mr. President, if I might just say to the Senator from Nebraska, because I am wondering if perhaps in his discussions with farmers and ranchers in his State--I am sure the issue which he alluded to, which I think is an important one, comes out--I wonder if other people around the country realize, when we make a gallon of ethanol, we take a bushel of corn--which is a remarkable thing that we have gotten to, where the technology enables us to do that--we produce 2.7 gallons of ethanol from a bushel of corn. We have almost 3 gallons of ethanol from a bushel of corn which goes into our fuel supply and represents about 10 percent of all the fuel we use. I wonder if a lot of people realize that one of the byproducts of that, as the Senator from Nebraska has mentioned, is something called dried distillers grain. The DDGs, as we refer to it, is something that is then used to feed livestock. Now, a lot of people think there is this whole corn debate about food versus fuel, but I don't think most Americans realize that only about 12 percent of our corn crop in this country actually ends up in foods. It is either consumed directly, such as corn chips, or indirectly, such as high fructose corn syrup. But one-third of the grain that goes into ethanol production comes out as dried distillers grain, these DDGs, and for each bushel of corn used in the ethanol-making process--as I said, the 2.7 gallons of ethanol--18 pounds of DDGs and 18 pounds of carbon dioxide.…”