“bestintxas— There is no price supports on most farm
commodities as prices are high enough to be above
support level.The reason they are higher than support
levels is energy costs drive up fuel and fertilizer,
and all farm inputs, so the price has to be up
some, compared to 15 years ago, to even
allow the farmer to produce it.And oil companies do
get much more in depletion and tax credits, for their
whole operations, than farmers ever got even when
farm prices were low and price supports were paid.
By 5-10 times as much. Oil companies have congress
bought just like drug and insurance companies do.
From the time there was taxes oil companies have
got huge credits.An the silly irony is people keep
talking about ethanol and farm subsidies, when it is
the oil companies are getting a tax credit.......”
I’ll say it again, strip away any type of tax credit to oil companies and they will hurt but just a few will go belly up. Credits simply are, on a basis of total enterprise value, not significant compared to what the credits and subsidies are for ethanol activities.
There was insignificant amounts of biofuels prior to the biofuels credits and the federal mandates. That alone tells one there is no basis for competitiveness in the marketplace.
Go ahead and look at the numbers: the credit alone on ethanol last year was $0.45 per gallon. That represents at least a 25% credit subsidy of a gallon of gas(less taxes).
That is far, far more than what oil and gas companies supposely get tax credits for. Furthermore, there is no mandate to use oil and gas, as there is for biofuels.
If Congress is bought and paid for by oil companies, I wish they would show it. All I ever see is a never ending castigation of them whenever prices go up and shouts of “Big Oil”(which is a lie as there are only 3 majors left in this country with a combined market share of less than 50%.)
For some time now, the leader of the ethanol movement ADM was branded by the Cato Institute as the largest corporate welfare recipient in the country’s history.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-241.html
What is really ironic on your comments is that you noted that energy costs are up for the farmer, but do not even realize that it is partially due to the price supports for the production of ethanol which add to it.
Energy is not in a vacuum. It does not magically rise and fall. Its price is the product of supply, demand, and the costs to produce.
Subsidization of ethanol adds to that cost of production of energy bigtime.
The blending credit was a dime more and congress
keeps lowering it. And will lower it more and over a
few years may be gone. And I look at the results at
the farm, the feedlot, and the pump. A miniscule amount
of credit(about 4 billion a year) compared to the trillions
handed out by the gov(not credits but tax dollars) gives
us all—
One— A lower pump price of gas that allows the consumer
to save 4 billion bucks every 2-3 weeks....
Two—Farmers with a better market that has raised prices
at the farm, of commodities so that about 15 billion
of subsidies don’t have to be paid.And the farmers price
of corn has settled at less than half of the highs
that was driven up by speculators, now that speculators
are mostly broke.
Three- With plenty of high protein feed, raising our meat
is easier, and with speculators gone the store price of
beef, hamburg is about the same as before the
speculative bubble.
Four— taking away all the blending credit won’t hurt farmers or ethanol companies. If they sold
ethanol for $1.35 instead $1.80, if the 45 cents goes away
what is effect. The $1.80 for ethanol is a byproduct
that brought in another $2.50 worth to company for a
total of about $4.30, so losing 45 cents won’t hurt, if
they lose it. The ethanol price dropped over a dollar
and most plants are still going.
Two big refining oil companies have bought
whole bunches of ethanol plants to run, and refiners
understand that thet make money selling product and
ethanol adds volumne, that they didn’t have to fight green
asswipes to build a plant for, or buy as much from the
terrorist ME.Ed Hubel.