Just a spoonful of sugar?

Taking a cue from the venerable Mary Poppins, Governor Pawlenty signed a bill into law today that would simultaneously help veterans, while continuing to promulgate the biofuel fiasco.

Governor Tim Pawlenty has signed a bill that requires diesel fuel to contain a greater share of plant-based fuel and allows soldiers' family members to take time off for military events.

When speaking with governor Pawlenty in February of this year, he gave me his assurances that he understood that biofuels were more of a liability than an asset, to wit,

Pawlenty acknowledged that the production of corn- and soy-based ethanol was having unintended consequences, and that there has been a huge move away from food-product ethanol and toward ethanol created via corn-based by-products, animal waste and other "refuse-to-energy" alternatives.

Why, then, would Governor Pawlenty sign into law a measure that would continue a failed energy policy, that of using much-needed food and precious growing acreage for biodiesel products, with the inevitable result being exponentially increasing food prices?

He can sugar coat it all he wants with veterans benefits up the wazoo, but the unshinable turd that is the biofuels sham remains.

Pawlenty should have known better.