The Biofuels Scam

The American Thinker ^ | November 07, 2010 | James M. Andrews

[BiggieLittle]

Where do you get it?

[PilotDave]

“I go out of my way and pay extra for gasoline that does NOT”
I’ve been able to find ethanol free fuel up until this week. Now all my sources have switched over to 10%. I have several airplanes that can burn 100% mogas, so I’ve bought alot of it over the years. I’m formulating a plan now to clean out the ethanol from the fuel and reuse it elsewhere...

[Lion Den Dan]

Bio fuel does not use food grain as in corn for your corn flakes. It uses corn that otherwise would be fed to cattle and there is not shortage of that crop. The big food price inflator is transportation and fertilizer which is driven by high crude oil prices.

The problem with bio fuel is that the production of same is not cost efficient and any one who tells you it is cheaper than petroleum is a. lying, b. misinformed, c. stupid. Reduce the cost of oil and gas production and you cut the cost of groceries.

[PilotDave]

“people who against biofuels,

are either Arabs,
or shills for the oil companies”

Welcome to FR. This has been covered before, but for the sake of lurkers...

You are WRONG. Arabs and oil companies LOVE ethanal mandates. For every gallon of ethanol we burn we burn about a gallon and a half of oil. Most of that oil is burned to boil the corn mash to distil out the whiskey/ethanol. The rest is burned in production of corn, tranportation, and lost efficiency in our cars.
And who pays for all the extra oil to burn boiling down the corn mash? That’s where the subsidies come in. Fedzilla out of control. Think it’s just coicidence that the price of fuel has gone up hand in hand with the mandated use of ethanol? Nope.
Big oil loves ethanol.

[sport]

I don’t like which one am I? I don’t like them because they are costly to produce and create problems in the machines that use them.Also it causes gasoline engines to get less fuel milage, not more.

Take ethylnol for instance, it takes mor btu’s to produce it than the use of it gives. It takes vast amonts of corn production out of the food supply

[LomanBill]

[Bio fuel does not use food grain as in corn for your corn flakes. It uses corn that otherwise would be fed to cattle and there is not shortage of that crop.]

 

Not exactly.   It uses the same food grain, but...

 

 

 

The yellow stuff you see in this photo is corn that has been used to produce ethanol.    That processed corn is then used as feed.

 

So why the effect on food prices?  My observation is that, to remain economicaly viable, many farmers are now rotating exlusively between Corn and Soy - the demand for BOTH of which is evidently being driven by the Biofuel industry.

 

I've been driving back to my wife's family farm for nearly 30 years now.   30 years ago a variety of food crops was observable on that trip - wheat, rye, sunflowers, sorgum, and yes - soy and corn.

 

Last summer, what I saw was predominantly corn and soy.

 

Regarding corn, "King Korn" is a well done documentary that examines the market and process that makes corn edible.

[OregonRancher]

http://pure-gas.org

[coloradan]

Bio fuel does not use food grain as in corn for your corn flakes. It uses corn that otherwise would be fed to cattle and there is not shortage of that crop.

The futures market says otherwise. In any case, if there are incentives to plant cattle corn (for ethanol) then that's just that much less area that can be planted with corn flakes corn, so the fact that the latter isn't used for ethanol isn't relevant.

[coloradan]

The collateral damage will be high, hitting many non-terrorist countries to hit just a few that are. I think our record with Predators is a bit better.

[BiggieLittle]

Thanks! Unfortunately none in the Hudson Valley area on NY.

[LomanBill]

>>That?s where the subsidies come in.

Bingo. A significant factor in today's rising food prices is the gaming of Earl L. Butz's work product - the subsidization of maximum farm production.

In the beginning, the subsidized overproduction of food products might have lowered prices; but that only lasted until the Grocery Clerks (which includes the Biofuel industry) figured out how to game that production into maximized profits.

It's the old question raised by Marxist "economics" - of destroying excess production. 


I refuse to buy an E85 "friendly" vehicle or electric hybrid just because the feudal overlords, via the Fedgov, have manipulatively mandated the premature demise of my dino-burners. So, as ethanol kills my vehicles, I'm increasing usage of this...


...as my primary personal transport; thus gaining a synergistic benefit of increased health and lowered transport cost, along with the satisfaction of giving a defiant finger to our would-be feudal owners.

[LomanBill]

PS. Good luck with your mogas extraction process for your aircraft.

We need more guys like...



...and YOU.

[Wuli]

WHENEVER the political class radically and dramatically intervenes in the economy in favor of one set of interests, it is NEVER a net gain. There is always as much losses suffered somewhere outside of those favored interests.

It can only be that way, because the organic functioning of economics and markets did not bring about the change imposed by that intervention, so, the redirection of productive energies - by political fiat - WILL produce losses, supply and price demands in those areas of the economy that energies are being directed away from.

Radical and dramatic political intervention in the economy automatically breeds MORE SHIFTING of resources than improvement of resources.

[Lion Den Dan]

My observation is that, to remain economicaly viable, many farmers are now rotating exlusively between Corn and Soy - the demand for BOTH of which is evidently being driven by the Biofuel industry.

Crops are roatated between corn (heavy nitrogen consumer) and soy (fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere) as a hedge against soil depletion. The production capacity of the United States alone for food stuffs has not even been scratched. Ethanol has no measurable effect on the price of your corn flakes.

[Balding_Eagle]

You need to become more familiar with actual farming practices.

See my tagline.

[coloradan]

Please enlighten me. While I live in farm country, that isn’t my profession. What I see on the fields is that different kinds of corn and other crops are planted on adjacent fields rather interchangeably from year to year (they come with labels, although, none say “corn flakes”) and what I see in the futures market is near multi-year high prices for nearly all commodities, including corn. I read of low inventories and upcoming shortages.

[The Great RJ]

The State of South Dakota, where corn ethanol is almost an act of religious faith, recently stopped using an 85% ethanol/15% gasoline mix in its flex fueled vehicles. The reason...the E-85 blend gives such poor mileage that despite an average 23 cent per gallon lower cost for E-85 (lower cost is a result of numerous government subsidies)the cost per mile was actually higher than using a 10% ethanol blend. Note the 10% ethanol blend also gives lower mileage and any cost savings would again be a result of numerous government subsidies. Ethanol gallon for gallon gives about 40% less energy than gasoline so any ethanol blends will necessarily give lower gas mileage.

[thulldud]

Where do you get it?

In my town, there are gas stations that advertise "no ethanol" gas. A couple of them serve nothing else, and a couple of the ones near me have special pumps for it.

As the resistance to federally-mandated food burning rises, I expect this to spread.

And, if the 'rats had kept control of the Congress in the last election, I would also have expected the feds to crack down on such retailers. Not now, though.

[okie01]

In my town, there are gas stations that advertise "no ethanol" gas. A couple of them serve nothing else, and a couple of the ones near me have special pumps for it.

As in my small town in NC Texas, on the fringe of a large urban area (DFW), the EPA rules under the Clean Air Act require stations within the DFW metro to sell only RFG (re-formulated gas with oxidation additive, i.e., ethanol).

My county is not part of the DFW metro, therefore retailers may sell "no ethanol" gas. Problem is that some wholesalers don't distribute "no ethanol" gas because the vast bulk of their volume is within the urban area and they'd prefer not to carry (and distribute) an extra item in inventory.

As a consequence, the stations served by the Conoco-Phillips distributor have "no ethanol". But the ones sereved by the Mobil-Exxon distributor offer only gas w/ ethanol additive.

Point being, in the big city, you've got no choice. In the rural areas, you'll have a choice. And you should take it.