Unelected EPA Bureaucrats Approve E15 Ethanol

American Thinker ^ | April 9, 2012 | Peter Wilson

[neverdem]

Last week, "an unelected group of people" over at the Environmental Protection Agency revised our national energy policy, approving a new gasoline blend with up to 15% ethanol, known as E15, which may be available in pumps this summer. Currently, most gasoline sold in the U.S. is E10, containing a maximum of 10% ethanol.

To review the backstory: the last time ethanol was in the news, it seems like its opponents, who come from both the environmental left and free-market right, had won a significant victory. Last summer, "a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress," to use Obama's words about ObamaCare, voted to discontinue subsidies for ethanol, effective 12/31/11.

The president termed the vote to end subsidies "ill-advised." Funny how he rails against "giveaways for the oil companies" -- which turn out to be tax write-offs afforded to most businesses -- yet had no compunctions about paying out 45 cents per gallon to ethanol producers. Rather than an "all of the above" energy policy, Obama seems to be pursuing "nothing from below."

Theoretically, 900,000 gallons of ethanol per day would produce a $17-billion annual subsidy. The actual number reported was lower, in the $6- to $10-billion range, but still much greater than the oil company tax write-offs of $4 billion that Obama finds outrageous, amounting to a few pennies per gallon of gasoline produced. (Four billion dollars spread over $133 billion gallons of gasoline per year comes out to 3 cents a gallon, and that doesn't take into account all the other petroleum products that oil companies provide.)

In any case, it appeared that common sense had prevailed. Ethanol was driving global food prices higher, causing riots in developing countries; rain forests were being destroyed so corn and sugarcane could be cultivated; cars got poorer mileage with ethanol...

[Pining_4_TX]

Thanks, that was nice.

Freegards,
Pining

[Dick Vomer]

yep, good old Chet Baker and those vintage cars. All those towns on the side of those vehicles are pretty much ghettos or worse. When I see those old videos I wonder where all those people ended up (besides the grave) and what started the decline of the suburbs they were from... just melancholy.

[Pining_4_TX]

Yes, it really is sad. I remember taking long car trips with my family, and things seemed so innocent then. Perhaps it was because I was a kid and didn’t know what was going on, but it surely seems like the good old days compared to now.