Creativity Quote by David Friedman

“Corn ethanol can help in the short term” is the kind of concession that’s meant to disarm. Friedman opens by giving biofuels their due, then immediately tightens the frame: “serious limitations.” The rhetoric is pragmatic, not purist. He’s not dunking on ethanol because it’s trendy to hate; he’s warning against mistaking a patch for a plan.

The subtext is a familiar American temptation: we love supply-side heroics (new fuels, new drilling, new tech) because they let us keep our habits. Ethanol, especially corn-based, plays perfectly into that story. It sounds like homegrown energy independence, a Midwest-friendly alternative to foreign oil, a “green” tweak that doesn’t require changing what we drive or how we drive it. Friedman punctures that comfort with the blunt pivot: “none of this is going to work” without “dramatically” better vehicle efficiency. The real target isn’t ethanol; it’s complacency.

Context matters here: corn ethanol sits at the intersection of climate policy, farm-state politics, and consumer psychology. Its limits aren’t just technical (energy density, land use, fertilizer emissions); they’re political, because subsidies and mandates can turn an interim measure into a permanent lobby.

As a musician speaking in policy cadence, Friedman’s move is interesting: he’s trying to translate a wonky truth into a moral-pressure sentence. The urgency hangs on “none” and “dramatically.” Efficiency isn’t sexy, but it’s scalable, immediate, and unglamorous in the way real fixes often are.