You call it corn, we call it an amazingly short-sighted way to reduce global dependency on oil or our carbon footprint

The Los Angeles Times has two interesting articles on plans to shrink California's and the US's carbon footprint through the use of ethanol. 

The first is about a rethinking in the Obama White House about subsidies to corn-based ethanol, which may actually increase the carbon footprint if you count crop displacement and the destruction of forests that results. 

The second is about various interest groups' efforts to derail California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's far-reaching carbon reduction plan (which would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 15% over the next twelve years), for many of the same reasons related to the first article. 

Now is the time to invest in switchgrass futures. If there is such a thing. 

[above: Switchgrass. Time for a trim, you damn hippie!]

(click photo for source)