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Exclusive: Trump weighs dropping personal efforts on biofuel reform - sources
Reuters ^ | 29 Mar 2018 | Jarrett Renshaw

Posted on 03/29/2018 10:24:14 PM PDT by blueplum

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is seriously considering abandoning efforts to remake the nation’s biofuel laws after wading deep into an issue that divides some of his core constituencies, according to three sources familiar with the administration’s thinking.

Advisers have urged Trump to instead let Congress tackle the biofuel reforms, but use the threat of administrative action to help rival lawmakers come together and solve the intractable issue.

The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has created reliable demand for corn farmers in the nation’s heartland, but merchant refiners like Valero Energy Corp say the costs to comply with the program have taken a huge financial toll.

The largest and oldest U.S. East Coast refinery, Philadelphia Energy Solutions, filed for bankruptcy in January, blaming its financial woes on the biofuels program and drawing Trump into the debate over ...

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: Iowa; US: Pennsylvania; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: bigoil; biofuels; ethanol; trump
boiled down, refiners pay for the costs of adding ethanol to gasoline blends per law, but it's expensive and they want to use less ethanol. Field corn producers want refiners to use the same amount but don't want to share in the cost of complying with mandated blends laws. Ichan tried to broker a deal but failed. What to do?
1 posted on 03/29/2018 10:24:14 PM PDT by blueplum
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To: blueplum

>>What to do?

Burn the corn fields, purge the aliens.


2 posted on 03/29/2018 10:36:38 PM PDT by Bayard
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To: blueplum

Ethanol laced gas ruins thousands of smaller engines and carbureted vehicles every year, incurring extra cost in repairs, increasing waste as engines and devices have to be replaced, and increasing cost to the consumer while offering little to no energy independence advantage or pollution decreases.

They can keep offering E85 as that is a choice freely available to new car buyers if they want it, but the mandated regular gasoline E10 blends gotta go.


3 posted on 03/29/2018 10:38:05 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr
Biofuel additions to diesel and kerosene are non-standard - it's a percentage tolerance, give or take.

I can testify from personal experience that it crippled most of the consumer kerosene heaters on the market.

I had spot-heating with a kerosene heater down to a science until the government jacked up the kerosene supply with their biofuel additive requirement (extra moisture in the fuel).

It's up to 7% of "whatever" qualifies as a "biofuel".

4 posted on 03/29/2018 10:44:47 PM PDT by kiryandil (Never pick a fight with an angry beehive)
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To: Spktyr

Corn makes great whiskey. Fat hogs, cows, chickens, and good corn bread.
Oh and crap gasoline and if they legalize hemp corn will be toast. Lousy toast to be sure but toast none the less.


5 posted on 03/29/2018 10:48:41 PM PDT by Equine1952
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To: blueplum

> “... and solve the intractable issue”

Nitpicking the writer, one does not ‘solve’ an intractable problem, at best one ‘manages’ it.


6 posted on 03/29/2018 11:56:04 PM PDT by Hostage (Article V)
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To: blueplum

Attempting to induce wourldwide famine to advance a Looney climate is pure evil.


7 posted on 03/30/2018 4:32:49 AM PDT by maddogtiger
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To: blueplum

Stop making fuel out of corn.


8 posted on 03/30/2018 4:33:39 AM PDT by bmwcyle (People who do not study history are destine to believe really ignorant statements.)
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To: blueplum

Kind of ironic that while it costs more to lace the gas with ethanol, non-ethanol gas is 15% more expensive at the pumps.


9 posted on 03/30/2018 4:36:51 AM PDT by trebb (I stopped picking on the mentally ill hypocrites who pose as conservatives...mostly ;-})
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To: blueplum

I am sick and tired of paying $10/lb for lunchmeat and pumping crappy gas to support Big Corn. Friken meddling by central planners screw us all, and enrich a few.

Term limits!!! COS.


10 posted on 03/30/2018 4:40:04 AM PDT by Basket_of_Deplorables (Trump has implemented Supply Side Economics!!!)
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To: blueplum

This is such a simple one. Phase it out. The guv should never have been involved. It is a criminal waste of prime farmland, raises costs for everyone—including downstream farmers in meat and dairy, and chews up people’s cars.

Should find other ways to help farmers, such as helping them diversify so we are not so dependent on other countries for our food.


11 posted on 03/30/2018 4:41:06 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: blueplum

And what kind of story is this, not even mentioning ethanol until the 6th paragraph, and then in an offhand matter that suggests ethanol isn’t really central to what this is all about.

Who wrote their story, the Corn Farmers of America?


12 posted on 03/30/2018 4:43:00 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: blueplum

Oh, and every last bit of farm subsidy we provide should go to the likes of leafy green vegetables—not yet more wheat and corn!


13 posted on 03/30/2018 4:44:14 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Hostage

Excellent nitpicking!


14 posted on 03/30/2018 4:46:30 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: blueplum

Bad words: ethanol, bio fuels

Good words: bio fuel car destroyers

Keep a small shed in back storing cans of pure gasoline to un-ethanol your car tank. Ain’t socialism wonderful?


15 posted on 03/30/2018 5:29:57 AM PDT by TheNext
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To: TheNext

I have to drive 25 miles to be able to put ethanol free gas in both my cars. I carry several gas cans when I do so that I’ve got gas at home for my motorcycle. And yes I had to buy a outdoor box to keep my cans in safely.

Not a day goes by that I don’t have to spend money unnecessarily because of some ridiculous government edict.


16 posted on 03/30/2018 6:11:18 AM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60's....You weren't really there)
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To: blueplum

The crop and dairy farmers are heavily subsidized by you and I. They will always vote for the person that will continue to give them the pork. Meanwhile this cluster ruins every engine it gets poured in and increases our cost for food, including higher cost to the beef and hog farmer.

I would think that closures of refineries would be a national security issue?


17 posted on 03/30/2018 6:38:29 AM PDT by Dartoid
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To: 9YearLurker

a subversive article. Biofuels sounds so ‘modern’ and ‘hip’ over ‘ethanol’ doesn’t it?

The author also generalizes ‘corn producers’. There are sweet corn producers and field corn producers. Sweet corn is food. Field corn is stock feed, cornstarch and ethanol.


18 posted on 03/30/2018 11:39:05 AM PDT by blueplum ( "...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017)
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