Posted on 10/10/2018 4:07:38 AM PDT by Elderberry
President Trump chalked up his announcement on boosting ethanol for farmers in Iowa to his record of "promises made, promises kept," while speaking in Iowa Tuesday night.
"I made that promise to you during the campaign," Trump said. "I made that promise to you during the primaries. Promises made, promises kept."
"We're going with E15 year-round," Trump said early in his speech, admitting that the full announcement would come later in his remarks.
The plan would relax Environmental Protection Agency rules that restrict the sale of 15-percent ethanol fuel blends to eight months of the year. The EPA waiver for the E15 fuel would allow it to be sold year-round, which corn farmers and ethanol producers have been pushing the administration to do for months.
Later in the speech, Trump warned that ethanol production and E15 will be in jeopardy if Democrats take back Congress in November.
"The Dems will end ethanol, you know that," Trump said. "They're not going to approve ethanol. They will find a way to take it away. ... You better get out there and vote."
The second part of Trump's E15 plan seeks to reform the market that refiners use to buy ethanol credits in order to comply with EPA's Renewable Fuel Standard. The Renewable Identification Number credits, or RINs, have been a hot topic of debate among the oil industry.
The Trump plan is an attempt to settle a feud between the ethanol industry and refiners over the direction of the nation's renewable fuel program until Congress can agree on substantive reforms.
The refiners don't want to be subject to the high costs associated with the price of buying RINs. One company in Philadelphia said the high cost of RINs forced it to declare bankruptcy last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
I’m not sure it’s bad policy.
When they first started 10% ethanol and I got a > 10% drop in fuel mileage it seemed nonsensical. But then I got a more recent car and I don’t see a large difference in mileage.
So if ethanol helps us stretch our oil supplies, then great.
If oil is a finite resource then the policy makes sense.
If it’s a renewable resource then it might still make sense depending on the speed which the earth renews it.
Nicolas Loris is an economist at the Heritage Foundation:
https://www.downsizinggovernment.org/ethanol-and-biofuel-policies
Scanned it.
Didn’t look to me like she addressed the issue of oil being a finite resource.
She talks about the “renewable” standard, but then goes on to lists the costs of using a renewable resource. Without discussing whether or not this policy achieved the objective of stretching finite oil supplies.
Scanned it.
Didn’t look to me like she addressed the issue of oil being a finite resource.
She talks about the “renewable” standard, but then goes on to lists the costs of using a renewable resource. Without discussing whether or not this policy achieved the objective of stretching finite oil supplies.
Most of the blending credits are passed in multi year blocks. I think the next round is due in 2019. There is also a lot of star credits which of course vaey, and some renewable energy cresits. Most are tax crwdirs, not direct subsidies.
A lot of the smaller plants can’t survive without the credits. Hence my comment about the messed up contractor. Some of the fees lot and larger plants would survive just fine. But also remember the oil industry in general and the house is Said in particular have been fighting ethanol for decades. Prior to shake oil, Said viewed ethanol as a strategic threat. If we went the way of Brazil, they would be hurting. With domestic oil production sky rocketing, the are now pumping out funding against that.
The biggest effect trump has had is to remove the Chinese market. Corn and other at commodity prices have been dropping fast. So allowing the sale of E15 will only offset the damage he did by a little bit
Because so many “conservatives” are only so skin deep. When it comes to their grubby hands being cleaned they will side with their little treats from the government coffer. Iowans have shown us that a few times. Pushes up global corn product prices and is a terrible alternative, but makes a handful of farmers rich.
People don't eat cattle feed. The corn is processed into mash, then alcohol. Then the expended mash is fed to the cattle as an improved more nutritious feed than the original silage.
We still have to vote for him, and might get a vacation and most weekends off to run some worthless corn crap through the tailpipe for god knows why
I like your handle. My oldest son has 2, the SuperDuke and a KTM-500.
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