Countdown until Zer0 leaves Office: 375 days as of January 11, 2012.
Posted on 01/11/2012 1:38:50 PM PST by neverdem
The Orwellian nightmare of running a business in the shadow of the Obama Administration is nicely captured in this story from the New York Times, which explains why motor fuel companies are about to be fined $6.8 million for failure to use a biofuel that does not exist:
In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.
“It belies logic,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, said of the 2011 quota. And raising the quota for 2012 when there is no production makes even less sense, he said.
Penalizing the fuel suppliers demonstrates what happens when the federal government really, really wants something that technology is not ready to provide. In fact, while it may seem harsh that the Environmental Protection Agency is penalizing them for failing to do the impossible, the agency is being lenient by the standards of the law, the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.
Ah, so that’s what passes for “lenience” from the bureaucrats and czars these days. Be thankful for our generosity, comrades! We could have fined you much more heavily for failing to do something that was literally impossible. Clutch every dollar we allow you to keep, and weep with joy at our munificence!
This is all part of an elaborate ritual fuel companies are required to perform, in accordance with the official state religion of “global warming.” These biofuels are supposed to reduce “greenhouse gas” emissions by 50 percent. Actually, I suppose the biofuels that don’t actually exist are reducing such emissions by 100 percent. Such is the wisdom of the almighty State.
This kind of nonsense is a regular feature of Stalinist command economics. Stalin himself was a bold pioneer in politically decreeing the impossible. He ordered that corn should be grown in Siberia, even though corn cannot grow in Siberia. The results were far worse than a $6.8 million tithe to the Church of Global Warming, so the fuel companies should consider themselves lucky.
How could anyone possibly defend this tyrannical lunacy? Like this:
[Dennis V. McGinn] of the council on renewable energy defends the overall energy statute. Even if the standards for 2011 and 2012 are not met, he said, “I am absolutely convinced from a national security perspective and an economic perspective that the renewable fuel standard, writ large, is the right thing to do.” With oil insecurity and climate change related to greenhouse gas emissions as worrisome as ever, advocates say, there is strong reason to press forward.
Never mind that no one can prove any such “climate change” is occurring, let alone that it has any relationship to “greenhouse gas emissions.” The commissars have spoken, and they are not to be questioned. If it makes no sense to you… well, perhaps your sanity needs to be questioned, eh?
Remember, Big Government is much smarter than private industry, and far better equipped to handle the ever-changing challenges of a fast-moving, high tech world. That’s why it raised the annual quotas for using a fuel that does not exist.
sorry, i was trying to post that on another thread, my bad
libertarian ping
Countdown until Zer0 leaves Office: 375 days as of January 11, 2012.
Unless you are the agency raking in the fines...(Where is that money going, anyway, the next Solyndra?)--and I wonder how juicy the kickbacks are!
More and more, junior Bush reminds me of Nixon. From his signing this biofuel foolery with penalties and subsidies to his compassionate conservatism with Medicare Part D and No Child Left Behind he was still vilified by an opposition that wanted our defeat in war.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t GW Bush sign CFR after saying he thought it might be unconstitutional but let the courts sort it out? I may remember that wrong...
That's about what I recall.
...the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.
You are looking at the future of agency funding. They are being "lenient" because this amount probably covers operations for the sector.
What annoys me about biofuels is that most of the supposedly "useless" sources upon which they rely are in fact quite useful in producing compost for topsoil.
Communisim, back in the day it was called commie.
In other news, the monthly chocolate ration has been increased to 20 grams.
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense —
To a discerning Eye —
Much Sense — the starkest Madness —
’Tis the Majority
In this, as All, prevail —
Assent — and you are sane —
Demur — you’re straightway dangerous —
And handled with a Chain —
Things still stink that Bush #1 did as well. Even Reagan succumbed to a Brady in a wheel chair and took away machine guns out of the hands of nearly all Americans for good.
here’s more EPA nonsense and the wasting of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Thanks for the link.
I was thinking along similar lines. I think the government doesnt go far enough. Since they’re hell-bent on punishing somebody for failing to use a non-existent fuel, why not force it into existence by punishing you, me, and every other living soul who failed to produce this miracle cure?
What shocks me more than anything is that the Slimes would even touch a story like this. True, it was Bush and not their savior who signed the law, but that leftist rag has never met the regulation it didn’t like -until now. Has anyone checked the temperature in Hell lately?
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