Sarah Palin wants to terminate all energy subsidies, including ethanol

The Los Angeles Times ^ | May 31, 2011 | Andrew Malcolm

[2ndDivisionVet]

Sarah Palin was asked Tuesday about the sticky subject of ethanol subsidies, and she said that not only they should they be squelched but that all federal energy subsidies should be eradicated.

"I think that all of our energy subsidies need to be relooked at today and eliminated," Palin told Real Clear Politics at a coffee shop in Dillsburg, Pa. "And we need to make sure that we're investing and allowing our businesses to invest in reliable energy products right now that aren't going to necessitate subsidies because, bottom line, we can't afford it."

Ever the maverick, Palin was responding was in direct opposition to Mitt Romney, who last week in Iowa, came out in favor of government subsidies for ethanol, the fuel produced from corn and other farm products.

"I support the subsidy of ethanol. I believe ethanol's an important part of our energy solution in this country," Romney told a supporter from West Des Moines on Friday.

Neither former governor has officially stated his or her intention to run for the GOP nomination for president; however, Romney is expected to throw his hat in the ring later this week.

One former governor who has committed to running is Tim Pawlenty. In fact, it was in his statement announcing his candidacy that he also backed the elimination of ethanol and other energy subsidies. Unlike Palin, however, Pawlenty wants to take it slowly.....

[Paul R.]

So, in other words, you are saying that if ethanol goes away, DDG goes away too (for the most part). And, grain would not be processed differently into other products + some sort of processed feed, possibly somewhat different than DDG. Instead, the feed market would just revert back to feed corn.

Or put yet another way, ethanol subsidies make DDG a commercially practical large scale feed source.

Correct?

Interesting.

[SunkenCiv]

One-half gallon of oil in the form of pesticides per bushel of corn would cost $2 to $3 per bushel. If this were true -- and it clearly isn't -- it should be enough to illustrate to literally anyone that the price of petroleum is quite literally the ONLY thing driving corn prices. And this idiotic piece of agitprop -- from a hydrogen "energy" advocacy site -- also shows the guy in the encounter suit spraying chemical fertilizer, a sight that I've never been privileged to see, what with me *growing up on a farm*. The Bum Rap on Biofuels Campaign to vilify ethanol revealed

[CanaGuy]

Get serious, puh-leeze! The number of people who burn corn in stoves in this day and age is insignificant to even the Canadian figures for ethanol consumption....check this...

Gasoline consumption: 41 billion litres in 2010 (CDN)
% ethanol per litre of gas: 10%
1 acre of corn = 1,200 L of ethanol..
1 acre of corn = 7,110 lbs of corn...

If I did my math correctly, that's (approx) 3.3 million acres of corn, which comes to 27 billion pounds of corn lost to gas tanks, rather than dinner tables, or feed lots, or many other products, per year.

Think again......and I didn't even include diesel, home heating, etc.

[NVDave]

Yes, I’d put it that way. DDG requires distillation - DDG stands for “dried distillers’ grains” and without large-scale distillation, the DDG market will basically cease to exist.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Congressman Steve King has recently come out against ethanol subsidies. He's a huge force in Iowa, especially amongst conservatives. This makes taking his position easier for potential contenders amongst Iowans.