Free Republic

President Trump chalked up his announcement on boosting ethanol for farmers in Iowa to his record of "promises made, promises kept," while speaking in Iowa Tuesday night. "I made that promise to you during the campaign," Trump said. "I made that promise to you during the primaries. Promises made, promises kept." "We're going with E15 year-round," Trump said early in his speech, admitting that the full announcement would come later in his remarks. The plan would relax Environmental Protection Agency rules that restrict the sale of 15-percent ethanol fuel blends to eight months of the year. The EPA waiver for...

Are you thinking about buying a new fuel efficient car but are wary of hybrid technology? Fear not! There are dozens of cars on the market today that deliver great fuel economy without resorting to heavy and expensive battery packs. While most of these vehicles are designed to run on petroleum products (either conventional gasoline or diesel fuel), the Ford Focus SFE is a FlexFuel vehicle that can run on 100% domestic E85 ethanol fuel as well as conventional unleaded gasoline. 2014 Ford Focus five-door E85 holds a significant price advantage over regular unleaded gas in some parts of the...

President Obama has called for a determined effort to free America from the hold of the international oil cartel. As his prime measure to achieve this, he has advanced a proposal to create a “cap-and -trade” system to limit carbon emissions. While the president’s stated objective is indeed worthy and in fact critical to the future of the nation, unfortunately, as a means to achieve it, a carbon cap-and-trade system is a complete non sequitur. The cap-and-trade mechanism is primarily a method of constricting electricity production. The United States only gets 3% of its electricity from oil. Thus taxing...

Congress is currently debating an economic stimulus package that would spend nearly a trillion dollars on measures of doubtful timeliness and efficacy. Here are three ideas on how to really hit the target much quicker, harder and for a lot less. 1. To resolve the credit crisis, make all down payments on house purchases tax-deductible. The credit crisis has been caused by a collapse of the housing market, which has made trillions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities held by major financial institutions worthless. This can be rapidly remedied by reboosting the housing market, which a tax deduction on all (not...

The federal government has invested billions of dollars over the past 16 years, building a fleet of 112,000 alternative-fuel vehicles to serve as a model for a national movement away from fossil fuels. But the costly effort to put more workers into vehicles powered by ethanol and other fuel alternatives has been fraught with problems, many of them caused by buying vehicles before fuel stations were in place to support them ... "I call it the 'Field of Dreams' plan. If you buy them, they will come," said Wayne Corey, vehicle operations manager with the U.S. Postal Service. "It hasn't...

Contact: Press Office, 703-650-5550; www.JohnMcCain.com ARLINGTON, Va., June 23 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator John McCain will deliver the following remarks as prepared for delivery at a town hall meeting in Fresno, CA, today at 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EDT): Thank you all very much. I appreciate the kind introduction from Jim Woolsey, and the warm welcome to Fresno State. I'm here to listen about energy issues as well as to talk. So let me just offer a few ideas before we begin our discussion. All across this state and nation, people are hurting because the price of gasoline...

The United States is in mortal period from a false friend: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The peril emanates from the totalitarian legal-religious-military-political code the Saudis call Shariah and their assiduous efforts to impose it worldwide. The danger is enormously exacerbated by the almost-complete failure of American officials at every level of government to acknowledge, let alone act to prevent, the Saudis' true agenda. Three examples are instructive: c A recent expose by New York Times reporter Philip Shenon of congressional and independent investigations of the murderous Sept. 11, 2001, attacks describes evidence of financial, logistical and other material support...

What do the following recent events have in common? c The president of the United States has prostrated himself for the second time in five months before the king of Saudi Arabia, pleading for more oil. Despite George Bush's inducements — an array of advanced, offensive arms; the promise of nuclear technology with which the Saudis can expect (like the North Koreans, Iranians, Pakistanis, etc.) to acquire the ultimate weapons; and U.S. help securing Saudi Arabia's borders (something the president has declined to do at home) — the American plea was spurned. The contempt felt by the House of Saud...

Five years ago, California's Capitol was mesmerized by a full-blown legislative investigation into how a $100 million software contract was awarded to Oracle Corp., bypassing the usual bidding channels. .... Kennedy is back in the "horseshoe," as the governor's Capitol suite is called, as chief of staff to Davis' successor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Florez is still pursuing scandal as a state senator and chairman of the Senate Governmental Operations Committee. He now wants her or some other top Schwarzenegger aide to testify at a hearing this week on another contract that was issued under somewhat questionable circumstances, this one to...

SACRAMENTO - Despite state laws that require government officials to seek competitive bids on large purchases, internal documents reveal that state officials held a series of private meetings with General Motors during which they agreed to buy "flex-fuel" vehicles from the automaker - a month before a bid for such vehicles was ever issued. --snip-- Soon after, the state solicited bids to buy an entire fleet of flex-fuel vehicles designed to run on high-grade ethanol. General Motors dealerships won all of the contracts for ... 1,300 cars and trucks and $17 million in sales, because they were the only automaker...

SACRAMENTO -- A state Senate hearing not only confirmed Wednesday that the governor's administration purchased a fleet of alternative fuel vehicles that have yet to burn anything but gasoline, but lawmakers also suggested that the vehicles were purchased to benefit a specific automaker that has a cozy relationship with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: General Motors. Auto manufacturers and state officials confirmed that the contract specifications for the fleet purchases were dramatically changed two years ago in such a way that only GM cars met the requirements. "What they did was create a sole source contract," said Sen. Dean Florez, D-Bakersfield, who...

A Canadian company has developed a new, more efficient process to make the alternative fuel ethanol from farm waste. With today's high oil prices, experts hope the new technology could reduce demand on fossil fuels and increase energy security. "In the past, ethanol fuel use has been limited, because the cost of production was too high," said Jim Easterly, a Washington, D.C.-based bioenergy consultant. "Ethanol produced from corn kernels and wheat grain has historically been more expensive than gasoline produced from oil." Producing corn-based ethanol, for example, uses energy from oil and electricity for everything from growing the corn to...

Pain at the pump is the price of this country’s addiction to oil. Americans are feeling it intensely—outraged over oil company profits, fearful that another hurricane in the gulf, or a terror attack in the Middle East is all it would take to send prices even higher. But what if there was one solution to all of this? Something that could solve America’s energy crisis, strengthen our national security, and help save the planet at the same time? Vinod Khosla: I looked, did my research and found this was brain dead simple to do. Stone Phillips, Dateline anchor: Is it...

Beginning next year, Chrysler will introduce flexible-fuel models of the Jeep Commander and Jeep Grand Cherokee capable of running on ethanol blends of up to 85% (E85)— the first application of E85 flex-fuel engines to the Jeep brand. All Jeep Commander and Jeep Grand Cherokee retail and fleet buyers who select the 4.7-liter engine option will automatically receive Flexible-Fuel Vehicles capable of running on E85 fuel. Also available in Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV) capability for 2007 are: * Chrysler Sebring sedan and convertible with the 2.7-liter engine. * Dodge Dakota and Dodge Ram pickups and Dodge Durango SUV with 4.7-liter...

Lack of marketing, few pumps lead to little demand Alternative-fuel vehicles may seem futuristic, but in reality, hundreds of thousands of such cars are already on Colorado's roads. Many drivers just don't know they have one. About 300,000 so-called "flex- fuel" vehicles that run equally well on either gasoline or on a fuel made up of 85 percent ethanol, called E85, are zipping along the state's highways now, and more car buyers, sometimes unknowingly, purchase them all the time. These aren't futuristic autos, with funny shapes or sleek designs. They're the pickups of General Motors and SUVs of Ford; they're...