That Smell

The miasmic stench hanging over St. Paul's "West End" neighborhood is matched only by the controversy about "Gopher States Ethanol" (GSE).

Bear in mind, Ethanol brewing is a new, non-economically-viable industry mandated by the State of Minnesota's creation of an artificial market for Ethanol; they mandated several years ago that all gasoline sold in Minnesota had to contain a certain percentage of Ethanol during the winter months. So Minnesotans are forced to buy gasoline that is rendered harmful to their cars, and support an unviable industry with their tax dollars (because Ethanol is NOT an industry that can sustain itself in the private market as of yet).

But I digress. There is a lawsuit underway against GSE by a group of neighborhood activists (and a few activists, or if you prefer "opportunistic carpetbaggers" from other neighborhoods), claiming that the brewing of ethanol is making the neighborhood unliveable. One of the factors they cite is the smell that comes from distillery.

Well, I drove through the West End last weekend for the first time in years. And I don't want to minimize the suffering anyone's undergoing, and my experience with GSE's smell is about ten minutes at a gas station downwind.

But - if that's what the locals call "unbearable stench", none of you'd ever better try to live in any farm town on the Great Plains.

It's just a first impression. My mind is thoroughly open on this.