I saw this tonight and was reminded of this conversation:
Posted on 01/21/2016 2:17:48 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
One of the most destructive environmental subsidies in the United States has found an enthusiastic supporter in Donald Trump.
"The EPA should ensure that biofuel ... blend levels match the statutory level set by Congress," he said yesterday in Iowa, adding that he was "there with you 100 percent" on continuing federal support for ethanol. "You're going to get a really fair shake from me."
The ethanol lobby has rigorously courted Trump since April, arranging to speak at least weekly, including at least three in-person meetings, in addition to an ethanol-plant tour, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Trump's support for ethanol may win him votes in Iowa, but federal support for ethanol is a bum deal for Americans.
Under the 2007 Independence and Security Act, Congress mandated that the United States use 36 billion gallons of biofuels, including corn ethanol and cellulosic biofuel, by 2022.
And the federal government not only requires the use of ethanol; it also subsides it. Tax credits between 1978 and 2012 cost the Treasury as much as $40 billion. Moreover, numerous other federal programs, spanning multiple agencies, allot billions of dollars to ethanol in the form of grants, loan guarantees, tax credits, and other subsidies.
Taxpayers suffer in other ways, too. Vehicles can drive fewer miles per gallon using ethanol blends than they would with pure gasoline. So Americans end up spending an extra $10 billion per year for fuel, the Institute for Energy Research estimates.
Ethanol also guzzles 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop, and the resulting scarcity drives up the price of food. This year alone, the Congressional Budget Office estimated, American consumers will spend $3.5 billion more on groceries because of the ethanol mandate.
Rising prices of corn feed have even put some small feedlots and ranches out of business. And as grocery prices increase, so does federal spending on programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
In a further hallmark of terrible policy, it's probably not even possible for Americans to meet the ambitious ethanol goals Congress and the bureaucrats at the EPA have envisioned.
Ethanol-intensive fuel blends can wreak havoc on car, lawnmower, and boat engines. In fact, many vehicle manufacturers will no longer offer warranties when ethanol comprises 10 percent or more of fuel; engine erosion simply becomes too common.
So, we can't really increase the total amount of ethanol mixed into our gasoline much more, but - especially as vehicles become more fuel efficient - Americans aren't consuming enough gasoline to meet the Renewable Fuel Standards with a 10 percent ethanol blend. The EPA acknowledged this inconvenient mismatch last spring, setting three-year ethanol-use requirements at 3.75 billion gallons below the legal minimums.
Ethanol's green benefit is also far from certain, explaining why even many within the environmentalist Left question - or outright oppose - the federal government's support.
It takes about 29 percent more energy to refine a gallon of ethanol than gasoline, and that process is often fueled by dirty sources like coal. Factor in the emissions generated during this production process, and ethanol sometimes comes in less green than old-fashioned gasoline. On top of that, burning ethanol also emits higher quantities of the chemical compounds that produce smog.
Then again, perhaps it's not surprising that Trump likes federal support of ethanol. After all, the real-estate mogul's business model has historically hinged on using tax abatements and other subsidies to make his building projects profitable.
(An example: As we reported in August, Trump Tower - which features a Gucci store Trump claimed was "worth more money than Romney" - has received a $163.775 million tax break from the city of New York.)
Many of Trump's constituents have rejected the so-called Republican establishment because of its corrupt preferential treatment for Wall Street and Big Business. But Trump's support for ethanol belies his populist Main Street rhetoric. In reality, he's just another rich, East Coast politician who would prop up special interests at the expense of the taxpayer.
-Jillian Kay Melchior writes for National Review as a Thomas L. Rhodes Fellow for the Franklin Center. She is also a senior fellow at the Independent Women's Forum and the Tony Blankley Fellow at the Steamboat Institute.
This was the gay hoteliers in NYC. Cruz said one was a good guy or something. It was a big fundraiser back in April 2015.
http://www.out.com/news-opinion/2015/4/23/gay-hoteliers-new-york-play-host-ted-cruz
I don’t know. Can you tell of an industry not run under government enforced rules? There has been a recent mandate to kill much of the coal industry. I think I was mandated to pay 35 grand in federal taxes last year. Who makes the biggest profit off of every gallon of gasoline you buy? Mandates are everywhere.
Bullshit. Taxes are everywhere, mandates, not as much. No one requires the US population to consume a given amount of gasoline every year. Or a given amount of beef or chicken, or lamb chops. No mandates for paper clip consumption, or, for that matter, paper consumption. The RFS mandate, on the other hand, is top-down, command economy socialist planning, and to support it is to be worse than a liberal, to support it is to be a totalitarian.
No one is forcing you to buy it. It ain’t obamacare. Get over it. We have 50 million people on food stamps with a mandate in place to provide full living expenses—this you are forced to support, if you have a job. The cost is about half a billion a day for the stamps alone. They vote for the RATS with your taxes. Stop lying that you are forced to buy gasoline.
I live in a semi-rural area. I most certainly must obtain gasoline, or I cannot leave my house using one of my cars. This is further exacerbated by the fact that i am disabled, and cannot travel by foot more than 100 ft. Which wouldn’t get me to my mailbox, at the edge of my property.
If i had no car, I could not get to my thrice-weekly treatments. Without my treatments, I would die. I am forced to buy ethanol because gas stations near to me only sell gasoline with the forced ethanol.
What’s wrong with you that you think you should have the power to force the US population to buy your crap?
If folks want to buy ethanol, let them! If not, tough.
If you can’t sell it without a mandate, you’re a crony capitalist, which is to say, a socialist, who lives on the economic rents squeezed out of the rest of us. You don’t belong here, your home is DU, or Kos, or the Huffington Post.
I can see why you support trump, a very successful crony capitalist.
Not a yuge Trump fan, but comparing tax breaks to subsidies is disingenuous at best.
That said, this issue raises my hackles and exposes the conservative / populist divide. I don’t suppose it will slow his run, but conservatives should ask themselves some hard questions.
Is there any major difference between ethanol subsidies and Solyndra, except big corn has been successfully stealing for decades and that solar power fraud never ruined anyone’s engine?
All capitalism is crony. The left created that moniker as a pejorative term for capitalism, but the fact remains, all capitalism is crony in this country or it dies. There is a station 15 miles from my rural location that sells ETOh free gas, but it is expensive. If demand were greatererhaps it would get cheaper. I do sympathize with your misfortunes. ETOH mixed with petroleum is the least of our worries. A Marxist Muslim sits in the white hut.
All capitalism is NOT crony capitalism. Only a communist would say that.
In the most microscopic way, you’re right, ethanol polluting our gasoline is not the largest problem we face. But the attitude of those who support it is. It is little different than the crony capitalist kenyan anti-christ in the White House.
Crony capitalism is a term invented by the communist.
How do you feel about subsidies for the oil industry? Look, I am not your enemy, ok. What I resent is being forced under threat of gunfire to pay half my income in taxes and 35,000 in federal income tax alone. I tire of being ripped off while 49% pay no federal income tax and receive most of the benefits. If I somehow get to retain a bit more of the fruits from my hard work, I will accept it and support it. I do farm but I rent most of my property. Farming is my second job. I have raised food most of my life for ungrateful people who now bitch constantly about modern agriculture.
“Not a yuge Trump fan, but comparing tax breaks to subsidies is disingenuous at best.
That said, this issue raises my hackles and exposes the conservative / populist divide. I don’t suppose it will slow his run, but conservatives should ask themselves some hard questions.
Is there any major difference between ethanol subsidies and Solyndra, except big corn has been successfully stealing for decades and that solar power fraud never ruined anyone’s engine?’
I am referencing the issue of government MANDATING the use of a terrible product like ethanol. The government is forcing a market for a product that would fail in the marketplace if not for the government mandates.
Trump supports expanding government mandates, he doesn’t get it.
Yes, you are the Enemy.
It is ironic that you whine about folks on welfare stealing your tax dollars while you indirectly expose that you are stealing my money at the gasoline pump everytime I fill up and am forced to buy your damned product that I DON’T WANT.
There is little practical difference between ethanol and obamacare.
You are the same as the kenyan anti-christ.
I don’t begrudge the infirm assistance. I refer only to the able bodied.
How is the loss of half my income stealing from you? Can you cast aside the emotion and prove to me with figures that I am stealing from you? Look, we all have outr problems, not just you. My youngest child has been disabled from birth. He is now 27 and lives a hard life, but he complains little.
Read what I wrote. Your being taxed half your income is theft to YOU.
But those who profit from the RFS mandate steal from me. I don’t want their crap in my gasoline.
If it’s such great stuff, people will buy it willingly. In a free society, a mandate is unneeded and immoral.
I think my tax burden far exceeds your cost of gas. What do you propose to replace ETOH? Do we go back to leaded gas and spread Pb throughout the atmosphere?
I saw this tonight and was reminded of this conversation:
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