If we’re to focus on speculation, Reid knows the first place to look.

Question: Should we focus on speculation or the use of agriculture for energy?

Harry Reid: I think if we’re going to look at speculation, the first place we should look at the speculation taking place in oil. Most all academics say that the price of oil is way higher than it should be. Why? I think one of the reasons, and I agree with the experts, is if you want to go buy a share of stock in General Motors, you pay a 50% margin. If you want to buy 100,000 barrels of oil, you pay a 3% to 5% margin. That’s where the real speculation takes place. In food markets, we have better control of food in some areas. We have better control of a lot of the things we do with food than we do with energy. I have always been concerned about using food when there are lots of people hungry in the world to produce energy. But as a result of this experiment that we’ve conducted, it’s clear that we can produce better fuel and that causes us to import less oil from overseas by using products that agricultural in nature. We’ve learned as a result of this maybe we don’t need to use as much corn. Maybe we can use switch grass and other things that grow out there that aren’t for eating. That’s where we’re moving now. That’s what this new farm bill has. It gives great incentives for using other products than just food you eat to produce energy.