The Dems may not know who their presidential nominee is yet, but they do know who their official ethanol provider is for the 2008 Democratic National Convention: Molson Coors.

It may seem a little surprising for the Dems to choose Coors, given Pete Coors’ run for Senate in 2006 as a GOP candidate (he lost, by the way) but the convention is being held in Denver this year where Molson Coors is headquartered.

Coors and its subsidiary will donate E85 ethanol to power a fleet of General Motors flex-fuel vehicles to be used at the convention as part of the Dems’ vow to make this convention as green as possible. While most ethanol comes from corn, Coors’ ethanol is produced from waste beer. Waste beer is the beer that’s lost during packaging or considered substandard. Coors is the first major brewer to convert waste beer to ethanol. The company’s Golden company produces roughly 3 million gallons of ethanol a year.

Coors also is a “Presidential-level sponsor” of the DNC. This means that they will provide beer for the Host Committee convention and pre-convention meetings and other events. To qualify as a “Presidential-level sponsor”, a company must contribute $1 million or more of cash and/or services.

(Image: Newscom)

I’ve been reading more about the increasing shortage of barley, largely due to the turn towards biofuels. I’ve long wondered whether this whole ethanol nonsense makes sense, particularly given that we’ve made very little effort to reduce consumption. That said, this article from der Spiegel (sort of the German version of Time) suggests that brewers’ own efforts to keep prices low may also be to blame.

Aside from the politics of it, I can only hope that the increase in prices (said to be up to 25%) doesn’t slow the growth of quality beer.