Stagflation, Anyone?

Bush today again pushed his ethanol plan as a fix to the nation's fuel dependency.

The Bush administration today announced the first-ever national goals for increasing use of alternative fuels in cars and trucks, but several environmental groups and an influential member of Congress said the plan could do more harm than good in efforts to curb global warming because the package of new fuels includes liquid coal....

The administration's alternative fuel plan would require that at least 7.5 billion gallons of such fuels be blended into the nation's use of fuel for cars and trucks by 2012, and at least 35 billion gallons by 2017 -- a nearly five-fold increase in five years. This year, the target is to reach roughly 4.7 billion gallons of alternative fuel, which is largely ethanol, produced mainly from corn, and biodiesel, made largely with vegetable oil.

Folks of a certain age might remember the stagflation which dominated the US economy in the 1970s. It was a gloomy time when energy prices (and gasoline lines) dominated the news; when whole industries slumped at the same time, and when job losses and price hikes seemed to travel in tandem.