Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at at Digg and at Reddit and in Delicious and Stumbleupon
That is part of the problem. If the subsidy disappears the mandate remains. We need to kill both.
It’s time for added-value ag to move beyond ethanol. We aren’t going to do that till we stop institutionalizing ethanol within the system.
Check this guy’s blog out - he brakes a lot of this out:
http://stopethanol.wordpress.com/2010/09/
I had no idea the distributors blending ethanol into gas get $0.45/gal to do it!
And if you are wondering why it’s harder to get ethanol-free fuel...it’s because of the mandates. If the distributors don’t ethanol-mix to their required quota they have to pay the government to pump non-ethanol.(Cap&Trade/PaytoPlay/PaytoPump)
put the Left on the defensive
/// i applaud your effort! but there are plenty of idiots on the right on ethanol.
ethanol is insane on sooo many levels.
leftys say it fights global warming
(when CO2 doesn’t cause it, and the world has been getting COLDER since 2003, as it enters another Maunder Minimum.)
rightys say ethanol reduces our foreign dependence.
but, in the entire (Pop Deming) process,
it takes MORE btus to make a gallon of ethanol, than it contains!
so, NET,
it INCREASES our foreign dependence,
and INCREASES the price of oil.
...and costs taxpayers over 6 billion a year, on top!
if we can’t even get this insanity killed, then i have lost all hope...
Other renewables get the same treatment, some states have had biodiesel and renewable energy (wind/solar) mandates for years. Subsidies for various energy forms is summarized here:
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2008/07/30/energy-subsidies-study/
In fact the latest stupidity is to use corn oil to make biodiesel, since soy oil is no cost-effective and existing plants (of which half are idle) are set up to process oil feedstocks, not cellulosic. That will drive up the price of corn for food, just as it did like biodiesel makers did when they created a market for yellow grease (used restaurant oil).
Get the gummint out of the picture completely and the market will determine if and to what extent renewables play, and the demand will be set by market forces, not a gummint mandate passed by a bunch of meddling fools.
Imagine that, hard working farmers catch a break while government workers continue to outpace the rest of the nation in pay and benefits, progressive parasites receive welfare funding of every type, and unions get their retirement paid. It is beyond me to understand how freepers will attack working farmers for catching a tax break while 44 million progs get food stamps, and 48% of progs pay no federal income tax. Keep in mind, the liberals hate giving any tax breaks to farmers too.
Ethanol should be burned in the body.