In a May report, the Congressional Budget Office confirmed what hundreds of economists and industry experts have stated for months: using corn for ethanol has little impact on the price of food.

Rather, the main culprits driving the higher cost of food are energy costs, excessive unregulated speculation in the commodities future market and a weak dollar.

The analysis said that ethanol was only responsible for 0.5 to 0.8 percent of the rise in food prices.

For far too long, the ethanol industry has been the scapegoat for last year’s dramatic increase in food prices. As former director of the Office of Management and Budget and former chairman of the House Budget Committee, I recognize the credibility of the recent CBO report and hope it’ll serve as the final nail in the coffin of the half-baked theory that ethanol was to blame for high food prices.

The evidence is in: Ethanol is not to blame.

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Jim Nussle, Washington