Posted on 04/27/2006 11:21:18 AM PDT by John Geyer
Edited on 04/27/2006 11:47:26 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
I would assume that ethanol, being produced by fermenting American grown corn into a useable fuel, would make gas cheaper, not more expensive. Instead of making the price of gas rise, I would believe that it would fall because we are using a renewable, home grown form of fuel. I guess I'm an idiot for not understanding the reasons behind this, but I ask for someone with more experience to explain it for me. I was telling my father how ethanol would make gas cheaper, and now I feel like a complete moron. Help me understand.
On the contrary, I think the tax exemption is right. What's wrong are the income taxes on everyone else.
Total BS.
I've been burning ethanol blends in vehicles of every age and description for many years, and what you're claiming just ain't true.
It appears to be more than just my definition.
Federal Energy Subsidies
Direct and Indirect Interventions in Energy Markets
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/FTPROOT/service/emeu9202.pdf
"There is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a subsidy. A typical textbook definition of a subsidy is a transfer of economic resources by the Government to the buyer or seller of a good or service that has the effect of reducing the price paid, increasing the price received, or reducing the cost of production of the good or service. The net effect of such a subsidy is to stimulate the production or consumption of a commodity over what it would otherwise have been."
Types of Energy Subsidies Reviewed
• Provision of energy and energy services.
• Provision of loans.
• Tax exempt interest on debt.
• Assumption of environmental, safety, and health liabilities.
• Research and development.
• Provision of Regulatory Services.
Wrong.
Like many, you fail to take into account the fact that a large portion of the corn in the ethanol production process ends up as cattle feed.
I don't know why so many are so intent on continuing to push this sort of false information.
I guess you'd rather that those literal mountains of Midwestern corn would be sold for a pittance and shipped to China to have value added.
I'd rather burn corn than Saudi oil, thanks.
Why does Ethanol additives cause gas prices to rise?
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, disagrees with you.
1. Monetary assistance granted by a government to a person or group in support of an enterprise regarded as being in the public interest.
2. Financial assistance given by one person or government to another.
Tax breaks are monetary or financial assistance. Having ethanol users not pay their fair taxes for the roads on which they drive is something we can agree to disagree upon.
Ethanol: Don't worry, we'll grow more!
;-)
To compare apples to apples, you would need to back off the accelerator in the car on ethanol fuel so that its performance matched the 6.9 second time.
I never have learned how to post active links, but if you Google on "ethanol fuel challenge" you can find some interesting information on retuning flex-fuel engines to optimize mileage.
Hmmm...those words set off my Liberal Detector.
I do not care for the government choosing one product over another in a competing market. I like it less when the not chosen one provides my income.
Thank you.
Sorry, but the growers of food have been the tools of national security policy all the way back to Joseph and the Pharoahs.
That's unlikely to change, short of Free Market Utopia.
The price of aiming for that Utopia; the complete loss of national sovereignty; is far too high, in any case.
So, we'll go on being protectionists in practice, as long as we care to continue as an independent nation.
That is, unless you want American agriculture to go the way of American manufacturing...
Choose ethanol-gasoline vehicles.
I guess we can keep beating this dead horse.
a subsidy is a transfer of economic resources by the Government
Precisely. Here, there is no transfer of economic resources by the government.
At any rate, I don't see how anything you quoted defines 'subsidy' so as to include the tax exemptions enjoyed by the ethanol industry. The government has decided to not tax something. Instead of grousing about it, I'd think a conservative might find reason to rejoice.
Back to the definition, I found this relevant sentence in that document:
Tax policy can achieve subsidy-like effects in energy markets.
Note the careful wording, "subsidy-like"; in other words, although the effect may be subsidy-like, it's not a subsidy.
I don't mind giving an advantage to domestic producer. I do not understand chosing one domestic producer over another.
My 2006 Silverado gets about 15 city, 20 highway on 87 octane and 14 city 18 highway on e87. I suspect that the EPA figures are the result of a mathmatical construct rather than an actual test.
So you do get less on ethanol.
I stand corrected. Wrong terminology, same idea.
Wow, you are really picking nits. Why not just agree that one does not substanitally differ from the other in this case?
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