Ethanol's Grocery Bill

WSJ/OpinionJournal ^ | 06/02/2009 | REVIEW & OUTLOOK

[xcamel]

Two federal studies add up the corn fuel's exorbitant cost.

The Obama Administration is pushing a big expansion in ethanol, including a mandate to increase the share of the corn-based fuel required in gasoline to 15% from 10%. Apparently no one in the Administration has read a pair of new studies, one from its own EPA, that expose ethanol as a bad deal for consumers with little environmental benefit.

The biofuels industry already receives a 45 cent tax credit for every gallon of ethanol produced, or about $3 billion a year. Meanwhile, import tariffs of 54 cents a gallon and an ad valorem tariff of four to seven cents a gallon keep out sugar-based ethanol from Brazil and the Caribbean. The federal 10% blending requirement insures a market for ethanol whether consumers want it or not -- a market Congress has mandated will double to 20.5 billion gallons in 2015.

[ovrtaxt]

Using corn for fuel is an incredibly stupid idea. The good news is, algae based biofuel is coming along nicely.

[A. Morgan]

Obama is going to destroy our cars and trunks so we’ll have to buy the new green cars.

There’s nothing ahead except crap sandwiches as far as the eye can see!

[libertylover]

I noticed they started putting 10% ethonol in the gas where I buy it, but I didn’t know it was REQUIRED by the Feds. I should’ve known.

[DuncanWaring]

Apparently no one in the Administration has read a pair of new studies, one from its own EPA, that expose ethanol as a bad deal for consumers with little environmental benefit.

This news should be no surprise.

0bama and his minions hate this country.

[wita]

There’s nothing ahead except crap sandwiches as far as the eye can see!

Yes, but after the crap sandwiches...

[Venturer]

We have oil in the ground. We know where it is. All we have to do is drill for it.

Why are we substituting food for fuel that is cheaper and easier to get.

The answer, The Democrats are determined to make fuel cost more so they can break us with their green agenda. The people we elected to represent us are selling our economy down the river. For some reason they are determined to turn our country into a third world craphole .

[from occupied ga]

You think it’s bad in cars, you shoud see how it affects boaters. First - the same gas that you and I fill up with at the gas station costs at least $1.00 a gallon more at the fuel dock, and second boats burn a lot of gas with the mid sized getting about 1 - 1 1/2 miles per gallon. The big ones use diesel, so this doesn’t apply to them. Reason I say this is that they have fuel tanks in the 150 - 400 gallon range, and at times if they get too much water in the gas the ethanol and water will separate out as sludge on the bottom of the tank necessitating a complete drain of the tank and discarding of the fuel in it. So figure if your tank is 300 gallons and you have to dump it at $4.00 a gallon that’s $1200 a$$hole Bush and a$$hole Obama have cost you. Just another indirect tax on the consumer to support campain donors in the ethanol endustry.

[from occupied ga]

The Democrats are determined to make fuel cost more so they can break us with their green agena

Sorry good buddy. This was inflicted on us by Bush and his accomplices in the Republican party.

[Gorzaloon]

Sorry good buddy. This was inflicted on us by Bush and his accomplices in the Republican party.

Archer Daniels Midland is an equal opportunity briber.

[from occupied ga]

Archer Daniels Midland is an equal opportunity briber.

LOL

[PreciousLiberty]

"that expose ethanol as a bad deal for consumers with little no environmental benefit."

There, fixed it. Since global temperatures are falling, there's no need for CO2 control. Instead, there's incentive for higher CO2 to boost food production.

It's pretty sad how 0bama is such a bait and switch - "change" to support the usual backroom politics, corn subsidies in this case.

Drill, baby, drill!

[taildragger]

I have never been a proponent of this fuel, but their may be a sweet spot for it especially of the source of the fuel can be a grass or waste anything but corn.

The sweet spot.

Direct Injection of E85, full or supplemental.

Imagine 3.2 to 3.5L V6's in an F250 doing the work of a former diesel.

We are talking 500 to 600 lbs of torque here.

Richardo's Ethanol Boost Diret Injection EBDI

And... Ford's work with Ethanol Boosting Systems supplemental ethanol direct injection being rumored to be worked on via "Project Bobcat"

IMHO these maybe game changer technologies. Is this again a question of "O" trying to get out in front of a story to take credit as he tries to remake the world in his image, when in fact men of science are making advances that he probably can't get his hands around no matter how many degrees he has that will change the game and he had nothing to do with it?

[Squawk 8888]

Unfortunately, 0bama is not solely to blame here- the ethanol mandates were supported by congresscritters on both sides of the aisle and have been in place for a few years now. You can thank the farm lobby for this boondoggle.

[DuncanWaring]

That’s true.

“Plenty of blame to go around” unfortunately applies to a lot of things these days.

[exDemMom]

How much gasoline does it take to produce a gallon of ethanol?

Also, I have noticed a significant decrease in my mileage. The ethanol does not contain as much energy as the equivalent volume of gas, and it shows.

I haven’t done the math, but I highly suspect that there is no decrease in the amount of pollution emitted; the increase in fuel consumption makes up for any decrease in pollution. (I’m talking real pollution, not CO2—nitrous emissions, etc.)

[Tarpon]

America depends on an educated electorate....

I will go with door number three, ignorant. California's CARB admitted that ethanol; produced twice the CO2 as straight gasoline and costs about as much a gallon as a bushel of corn.

So if you want to know what price gasoline is headed to, track commodity corn prices.

America's economy runs on cheap food and energy. Nothing complicated. Raise those prices and you get orangutans hanging on the walls of cardboard huts. Everybody working, spending all their time, to keep shelter over their heads, warm and fed. SLAVES to their own existence.

"No-one knows who I am," George Hussein Onyango Obama, 26, told the magazine. "I live here on less than a dollar a month."

You think I am kidding? Wait.

Extra credit, if you knew your relative was living like this, and there are plenty who are in the Obama family, why wouldn't you send them money so they could upgrade their existence? I mean do you think you would miss a few dollars out of those millions?

[Tarpon]

Trucks work best with lots of torque, not RPMs.

I have a 180 BHP, 450 ft pounds torque diesel that will work the pants off those shinny engines and go over 200k miles doing it.

[stayathomemom]

Those nice folksy ads are telling us otherwise.

[taildragger]

Tarp,

did you read my post?

They are claiming 500 to 600 lbs of torque.

Richardo is not spilling the actual numbers, but is claiming engine thermal efficiencies approaching or equal to diesels.

At that point you have:

Engines with lower weight, No dual certification or fuel system design, and potentially not buying a diesel from an outsourced engine supplier.

With all do respect, at that point Diesels are no longer top dog and could end up on the engine scrap heap of history like the sleeve valve engine....