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4A EDITORIAL AND OPINION/Cbarlotte ^ost Thursday, June 15, 2006 Cljarlotte The Voice of the Black Community 1531 Camden Road Charlotte. N.C. 28203 Gerald O. Johnson CEO/PUBLiSHER Robert L. Johnson co-publisher/general manager Herbert L White EDITOR IN chief OPINION Alternative fliers cest tee high for America Grain-based ethanol will drive up cost of energy as well as food By Emmanuel Glakpe SPECIAL TO THE POST Sometimes, a minor item in the news that later proves signif icant is overlooked. That may have been the case when the U.S. Department of Agriculture said a month ago that the increasing consumption of ethanol to run automobiles will almost certainly contribute to higher food prices. This year, an astonishing 14.4 petxient of America’s com crop - 2.15 bOhonbxishels - will go into the manufacture of fuel ethanol, and is expected to help drive up the price of com by 10 to 30 per cent. Com is used in many food products, ranging horn cereal to cooking oil, so an increase in com prices affects food prices gen erally Sure enough, U. S. livestock producers now warn that if com prices continue rising, production of cattle, hogs and chicken will decline, trimming meat supplies and pushing up meat prices as early as next year. We cannot afford to pay the feed prices that are coming at us given the current prices of meat, a Missouri cattle farmer told a newspaper reporter. The increasing use of ethanol - now at 5.1 billion gallons a year but rising to 7.5 bilhon gallons by 2012 imder a mandate fiom Congress - is hkely to have far-reaching consequences. Corn-based ethanol costs $120 a barrel to produce, compared to $75 a barrel for oil. Ethanol is aheady a major factor contributir^ to higher gasoline prices, because refineries are now required to provide service stations in most big cities with reformulated gasoline, a blend of 10-per- cent ethanol and 90-pei*cent gasohne, in order to meet clean-air regulations. Some service stations are also seUing fuel that’s 85- percent ethanol, but only to drivers whose cars have been adapt ed to use it. The tmth is that ethanol is not all it’s cracked up to be. The energy content of a gallon of ethanol is about one-third lower than a gallon of gasohne. Consequently ethanol’s gasoline mileage is less, but you’d never know that from all the pubhdty surrounding its use. Even with a 51-cent-a-gaIlon federal sub sidy ethanol is too expensive. One reason is that the production of corn-based ethanol requires a lot of energy - large amounts of oil and natural gas to make fertilizers and pesticides, run farm machinery, transport the com to ethanol plants, and distill the com into ethanol. Also, ethanol can’t be shipped by pipehhe. It must be transported by tmck, rah, and barge. And since ethanol is made primarily in the Midwest, drivers on the East and West Coasts pay a premium because of shipping costs. Some members of Congress have proposed legislation that would require even higher levels of ethanol pi*oduction, in the hope it will reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil. But that’s a false hope that will result in even greater depend^ice on foreign oil. The U.S. General Accounting Office has determined that the federal tax incentive for ethanol does httie to promote energy security Studies show that if we used all the com produced in the United States to make ethanol, it would provide fuel for only 7 percent of aU the vehides on the road. Put differently, if every car in America was fully powered by ethanol, it would take 97 percent of U.S. soil, to grow enough com to support it. The over emphasis on ethanol hurts domestic oil and gas production. Despite opportunities to open up resource-rich areas that are closed to production, Congress remains preoccupied with ethanol. According to the Interior Department, there are an esti mated 59 bMon barrels of undiscovered oil and 288 trillion cubic feet of natural gas on the Outer Continental Shelf off the lower 48 states. Most of the oil and gas is in coastal waters dosed to production. Yet this is enough oil to replace current levels of imports fiom the Persian Gulf for almost 60 years. And there are substantial oil resources in the mountains West and Alaska that are also off-hmits. Restricting domestic oil production does noth ing to increase om' nation’s energy supply or security In fact, U.S. dependence on impoi-ted oil is at the 60-percent level and rising. Instead of taking common sense steps to reduce energy costs, we are seeingresults opposite of those intended, wasting billions of dollars on subsidies to ethanol producers and com farmers, while more of our income goes to pay for gasohne and food. EMMANUEL GLAPKE is professor of mechanical engineering at Howard Universitv in Washington, D.C. America’s banking on diversity Td Samuel P. Golden, ombudsman in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, nothing more graphically ball player. “Last month, the Washington Post reported a purse-snatching of the sort that is regrettably too com mon and routine on the streets of oxtr big cities,” Golden said in a speech at the Urbane Financial Services Coahtion’s annual convention in Dallas. “However, this inci dent warranted press cover age because Jose Guillen, a player on the Washington Nationals baseball team, was impacted by the robbery P^ the newspaper, hh*. Guillen’s 24-year-old girlfriend had just finished cashing his pay- check and wirir^ some of the proceeds back home. Almost before she knew what hap pened, a thief made off with the cash.” Warming to his subject, Golden said, “There are two remarkable aspects to this story First, Mr. Guillen reportedly earns $4 miUion a year playing baseball; his weekly salary check was $12,090. Secondly when the purse was snatched, his girl- fiiend was emerging not fi'om a bank, but fi'om a local check-cashing establishment. “So I ask you: if a person well paid even by major league baseball standards — someone with the best agents and technical advisers at his disposal — choose to rely on nonetheless on a local check cashier, despite their notori ous fees and security risks, what does it say about the barriers that still exist between the banking system and millions of Americans, especially those whose first language is not English? In other words, if financially- prominent individuals haven’t been persuaded to use direct deposit and regular banking services, is it any wonder that millions of oth ers of lesser means and sophistication continue to rely on storefi'ont money ser vice businesses?’ Hispanics are expected to double their presence in the U.S. over the next 50 years, making up a quarter of the nation’s population. The Census Bureau projects that shortly after 2050, Hispanics, blacks and Asians will consti tute more that 50 percent of the population, making Whites a minority in the U.S. popxilation for the first time. “The question is, how well prepared is the banking industry for this sweeping change in our national demo graphics?” Golden asked. “Judging by the Washington Post story, the answer wovild seem to be, not as well as it needs to be.” Golden pointed out that people of color are overrepre sented among the 10 percent of households that are “uhbanked,” meaning they do not have regular accoimts at federally-insured institu tions. ‘It is precisely those house holds that rely inordinately on cash checking establish ments, rent-to-own outlets, pawnshops, and payday 'lenders to conduct their basic financial business. In so doing they pay a heavy price - not only in fees and poten tial loss due to theft, as Mr. Guillen discovered, but also in the credit histories that these households are not building through integration in the mainstream financial system.” In addition to undei'serving the so-called fiitige banking customers, Golden said finan cial institutions may be hurt ing themselves with their “incredible shrinking grace period.” He continued, “And, always, the fees: late fees, overlimit fees, and balance transfer fees that seem to go only in one direction. That would be the same direction people’s blood pressure goes when they see that the out standing balance on which they have been paying 15 percent APR is now goir^ to cost them 32 percent because they were a few days late in paying an electric bill.” Gk)lden, an Afiican- American, told memb^'s of the Urban Financial Services Coalition that because they are Black, they have a special obligation to argue against practices that could, in the end, harm both the industry and people of color. “While the bank’s reputa tion with its customers is a priceless asset, it is also a per ishable one,” he reminded them. ‘T would argue that real leadership consists not only in recognizing that fact, but, even more, becoming an advocate for it.” The Urban Financial Services Coalition, formerly known as the National Association of Urban Bankers, for years had a good age mix among its members. Now, largely because of numerous mergers and acquisitions that led to many older bankei's retiring early or accepting buyouts, the association’s members tend to be younger, many of them in their 30s. And the younger trend may continue if banks continue to ahenate their cus tomers. ‘We have long contended that some consumer banking pi'actices walk a dar^erous tightrope between what’s impermissible and what is merely shortsighted, injudi cious, and inadvisable,” Golden said. “This reminds me of the saying I heard finm my Dad - ‘pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered.’ Your retail customers should never be viewed as a feeding groimd. While overreaching for short-term gain is imder- standable, excessive greed for profits, at any cost, is nev^ wise.” GEORGE E. CURRY is editor- in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association News Service and BlackPressUSA.com. His Web site, www.georgecurry.com. Are immigrant Hispanics today chattel? Ai'e Illegal Immigrant Hispanics Tbdays Chattel? As the 2006 midterm dec- tion comes into fiill view, Americans might expect to hear com plaints of boys” to dress up in paramiLL- tary goons’ garb that might make black voters fed intim idated on Election Day This disquieting paramilitary symbohsm may also be exploited by today’s nativist zealots in the present anti- Ulegal immigration tide sweeping the nation. I teach algebra at a Pennsjivania college, so on my way back home to Delaware I may stop in Boothwyn, Pa., to buy fiuits and vegetables at the Produce Jtmction, a whole sale outlet. Spanish is the language spoken by the young people servir^ at the coimter and most of the other workers on hand. You are lucky if you see two Anglo- Americans. When you see an Angln- American it appears that they are management. In late May, I was taken, aback by a deHvery truck that looked like a military combat vehicle parked directly in fix>nt of the Produce Jtmction. The body was painted in a military camouflage. It had what appeared to be two rockets mounted to its top that appeared ready to be laimched against an enemy This scene initially appeared threatening until I looked dosely at the rockets where I recognized that they were probably hom^ade props. Once inside of the Produce Jtmction, I look aroxmd at the people to guesstimate who might be driving this vehide. I saw a Hispanic-appearance chap with military paisley colored pants, but he didn’t get into the vehide when he left. On the way out the door, an Anglo-American lady looked into my eyes with great concern. She said, “It sends a terrible symbolic message.” I attempted to calm her fear by cafling her attention to the fact that the missiles on the truck’s top were not real. When I headed for my car I saw an Anglo-American man ager come out. His face appeared drawn as he looked at this obvious attempt to rat tle the nerves of his Hispanic workers inside. Then I saw an Anglo- American chap comir^ fixim aroimd the outside of the store who appeared to be a good ole’ boy This good ole’ boy was dressed in white dothes and white hat. He got into the truck. It was quite obvious that his symbohc mess^e was to intimidate the Hispanic workers.' The above inddent made very clear the deleterious power of symbohsm. What was troubling was I had con cluded that yesterday’s cross burnings in minority peoples’ yards had morphed into today’s paramilitary truck with two fake rockets moimt- ed on it. I worry that this paramili tary zealot was exploiting the symbohsm of sending the National Guard to the Mexican bolder to make his point that these Hispanics were persona non-grata with out really knowing if they are fllegal immigrants. While I am strongly against fllegal immigration, I fed it imperative that we don’t give nativist zealots (yesterday’s White Citizens Council - Ku Klux Klan) a hcense to intim idate people in oui* zeal to solve the fllegal immigration crisis. America does not need a reincarnation of Ihe age of Jim Crow where fllegal Hispanic immigrants are dehumanized into today’s chattel. SHERMAN MILLER lives and writes in Wilmington, Del.
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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June 15, 2006, edition 1
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