Editorial: Fast Choices Can Produce A Slippery Slope

More and more these days, we are seeing questionable “ends” produced by making fast choices and either ignoring research or simply not doing enough of it. Occasionally these end results impact the towing industry.

One example back in the 1980s resulted in non-river folks investing in barges. It was a mixed bag, because as things turned out, the harvest was good (or the sales of agricultural goods was bad), and we ended up storing corn in barges.

Going way back, farm legislation created soil banks in the 1950s. Farmers were paid not to plant crops but to let their fields grow up into a variety of cover for wildlife. Non-farmers began buying up farmland, then using government soil-bank checks to pay off their purchase. Many family farms were vacated as a result.

The point is that as we seek to accomplish one goal, we frequently create unforeseen problems that might have been ferreted out if we had given matters enough study.

Some situations are critical and decisions are based on the need for immediate solutions to problems. Often, results cannot be predicted, so planners just give it their best shot and hope for the best. Then there are the situations where the benefits are weighed against the negatives, and a choice is made to go ahead. No one is out to do wrong.

Decades ago, efforts were made to straighten winding alluvial riverbeds in the Lower Mississippi, but nature took its course, and before long the winding riverbeds returned to their natural state. It was a grand experiment, but one not repeated. When the builder of Eads Bridge in St. Louis decided that Lower Mississippi River passes could be flushed out by using willow mattresses and wing dikes, it was a successful experiment. The system is still in use.

The widespread move to ethanol production across the United States is producing unexpected and unwelcome results. But we have to remember the circumstances. It had been discovered that methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) was seeping into ground water from storage tanks across the land. California banned its use. An important part of the equation was that we were dependent on foreign oil, and people were looking for a way out; it seemed ethanol was at least part of that answer.

One answer came in the 1970s when gas prices rose, and the feds lowered speed limits on U.S. interstates to 55 mph. The result was improved safety, improved gas mileage, and the emergence of automobiles designed to get more miles per gallon. Support for ethanol grew. So today, not so all of a sudden, we are knee deep in the production of crops (mainly corn) for the production of ethanol. Remember, the goal is to reduce dependence on foreign oil. We know it helps, but to what degree is hard to pin down. We do know that corn prices have risen dramatically. So have barge rates. Some states, once corn exporters, are becoming corn importers. Does this mean we will lose our export-corn customers foreign corn producers?

Other side effects include the use of gigantic amounts of water to make the ethanol. Some parts of corn country—the Missouri River basin, for example—are in their eighth year of drought. Still, the added burden on the trucking industry and railroads is being felt. Apparently we had not given enough thought to this issue.

What has changed since we last wrote of this? Food prices have exploded along with delivery costs, due to the price of diesel and gasoline and the change in the availability of immigrants to harvest crops.

In recent days, the business of rushing to ethanol production has crept into politics. Included in the criticism is the repeated charge that ethanol pollutes. Some argue the whole process was not thought out well. Critics point to side effects—higher food prices, switch in farm crops and lack of corn to export. Some argue that ethanol programs have been devised to aid farmers, just as the food stamp program was devised to help get rid of surplus food. Could these concerns impact the campaign as candidates search for issues? Some voters want more money spent on alternative-fuels research.

This issue will not solve itself overnight, and right now the Upper Miss is in the process of shutting down for the winter. The last barges are moving out. Let’s just say, the bears are going into hibernation. By spring, the ethanol issues will have gained momentum—or died.

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