Ethanol is bad policy, bad economics, bad for engines, but great for the crony Ag lobby.
Yeah WTF?!?!?
You are not obligated to keep a BAD campaign promise!
Trump has been nothing less than a STELLAR president.
Here, however, he is wrong.
Agree on all. But to keep the midwestern corn belt on board politically? I’ll rebuild my engines if I have to.
At least I still have a practical reason to discuss the inefficiency caused by subsidies in my Economics classes...
:(
Boy, do I disagree with Trump on this. Ethanol is just bad.
Bad.
Bad.
I agree, and wonder why Trump is in favor of it. Do you think there’s more to the story?
I don’t like ethanol in my car. I also deplore the idea of taking food and converting it to car fuel...So here are my questions.
1. Is ethanol made from corn and other eatable crops, or is it made from the waste products, eg corn cobs, and corn stalks?
2. Is it true that it actually takes more energy to produce ethanol than what it saves?
3. Does ethanol improve mpg? If not, then why are we using it?
4. Does ethanol contribute to higher prices for food? (meat, corn based products etc etc.)
5. Does the gov’t subsidize this industry or can it make it on its own?
6. In summary, what are the facts about this?
Ethanol is $hitty for the environment and $hitty for any fuel system pre-2016 its run through.
I’m not high on ethanol made from corn but in the grand scheme of things it’s a small item. Trump is attempting to keep all of his campaign promises to everyone. I could not be happier.
Meh. For all Trump’s good, I’ll take one bad.
/Ethanol is bad policy, bad economics, bad for engines, but great for the crony Ag lobby.
I agree, but the folks out here in Iowa like it. Front page news on our university newspaper. I respect our farmers, but it would be nice if they could see past their own interests sometimes.
Politics.
You want to keep rural states in your camp after the tariffs cutting into the biggest market for their products. Losing the China market to South America is going to hurt badly.
If the corn farmers had any sense, they would realize that subsidies and government interference in the market actually hurt them. It keeps marginal farmers hanging on when they should quit, it favors large ag businesses over family farms, and it contributes to distortions in pricing and to surpluses that glut the market.
I’m not sure it’s bad policy.
When they first started 10% ethanol and I got a > 10% drop in fuel mileage it seemed nonsensical. But then I got a more recent car and I don’t see a large difference in mileage.
So if ethanol helps us stretch our oil supplies, then great.
If oil is a finite resource then the policy makes sense.
If it’s a renewable resource then it might still make sense depending on the speed which the earth renews it.