Why would I agree to such a stupid position?

Here in the us we could swap acres of corn used only for ethanol production for acres of solar panels that produce a 100x more power annually.

Yes, but the reason we incentivized ethanol production is to not lose the productive capacity for corn in case we need it to feed people. Having a significant excess of food production capability is incredibly important to long term stability. You really can't overstate the importance of food production capacity.