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FOIA Documents Regarding The Death of Col. Ted Westhusing

Amid the myriad tragedies and heartache caused by the Second Iraq War, the death of Col. Westhusing is among the saddest and most senseless. I have been asked by a number of people who knew Col. Westhusing for some of the documents that I obtained from the Defense Department via the Freedom of Information Act over the course of my year-long inquiry into his suicide. Rather than distribute paper copies, it makes sense to make them available in electronic form. Herewith, a batch of the key documents, in PDF:

The Immorality of Ethanol

May 2008
Energy Tribune
The ethanol apologists refuse to face the facts. Soaring demand from the ethanol sector has helped push prices for all grains dramatically higher. Over the past two years, corn prices have more than doubled and soybeans have nearly tripled. And yet the ethanol boosters continue to claim that the biofuels business is not to blame.

REVIEW: E Magazine Reviews Gusher of Lies

May 5, 2008
E Magazine
To The Last Drop
by Jim Motavalli
Robert Bryce’s Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence” (PublicAffairs, $26.95) is a timely book. If you’ve ever wondered why we haven’t abandoned our addiction to oil and simply started running our cars on ethanol from corn or biodiesel from soybeans (or even used fast-food fryer oil), you need this sobering account.

REVIEW: Energy Outlook Reviews Gusher of Lies

May 05, 2008
Energy Outlook
Going It Alone
by Geoffrey Styles
The quest for US energy independence might just be the biggest and most persistent bad idea in the last several decades of energy policy. I've been railing about this subject since I started this blog more than four years ago, and I have acquired a deep understanding of what it means to swim against a strong tide.

REVIEW: Harvard Business Review Has a (Short) Review of Gusher of Lies

May 2008
by John T. Landry
Energy is such a politicized topic in the U.S. that it’s no surprise when rhetoric obscures reality—ridiculous arguments for ethanol subsidies being only the most egregious example. Bryce, an energy journalist, argues persuasively that ending oil imports would actually reduce U.S. economic security while having little effect on terrorists (who rely mainly on organized crime for funding) and petrodictators (who have survived low oil prices before).

REVIEW: Curledup.com Reviews Gusher of Lies

May 2, 2008
Curled Up With a Good Book
Robert Bryce has written an important book, one in which he persuasively argues that America’s goal of achieving “energy independence” is not just unwise; it is impossible. Gusher of Lies is the kind of wake-up call that would have saved American consumers and taxpayers billions of dollars if it had been written and understood a generation ago.

Bryce Interviews Andrew Bacevich, Professor of International Relations at Boston University, About Iraq and US Foreign Policy

May 2008
Energy Tribune
Andrew J. Bacevich is a professor of international relations at Boston University. A graduate of the U. S. Military Academy, he received his Ph.D. in American diplomatic history from Princeton University. Bacevich left the Army with the rank of colonel. He joined the faculty at Boston University in 1998.

Ethanol betraying its promises

April 27, 2008
Chicago Tribune
It is now beyond dispute that congressional mandates on ethanol use are having a number of deleterious effects, soaring food prices chief among them. So given that, plus recent findings that greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol and biofuels may actually be greater than those created by conventional gasoline, a natural question arises: Which presidential candidate will first call for a change in U.S. ethanol policy?

The Electricity Gap

April 2008
Energy Tribune
When it comes to economic growth, the vital commodity is always electricity. Peter Huber and Mark Mills, in their outstanding 2005 book about energy, The Bottomless Well, made this point clear, declaring, “Economic growth marches hand in hand with increased consumption of electricity – always, everywhere, without significant exception in the annals of modern industrial history.”

Bryce Interviews Robert Hart About Electricity Development in the Third World

April 2008
Energy Tribune
Robert Hart has for many years worked to develop electric power projects in emerging nations. As CEO of Coastal Power from 1994 to 1999, he was at the forefront of the global surge of private investment in emerging market power, pioneering the first privately owned and operated power plants in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

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