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 ...
Exactly.
Once the bad, horrible, trade deals are fixed the ethanol subsides are going to reduced or maybe go away completely.
Please tell me where I can buy a small, not mid-size, not full-size, diesel pickup.
That's what I've wanted for a long time.
I resent the fact that in order to prevent older automobile or small engine fuel systems from being damaged by ethanol, I have to increase the after pump cost of gasoline by adding an expensive “preservative”. Ethanol requires more energy to produce that it yields. Corn is for eating.
If they go with E85 year round that will be one less change at the refineries. Now make all of the other blends optional, not mandatory.
As I recall, in a last-minute hail-Mary to win the Iowa primary, candidate Trump made the ethanol "campaign pledge" in one of his first speeches using a teleprompter. He was listening to the GOPe consultants. He lost Iowa. Bad.
As president should know better now.
Politics.
You want to keep rural states in your camp after the tariffs cutting into the biggest market for their products. Losing the China market to South America is going to hurt badly.
Like I said Trump is keeping promises. It’s called integrity. You don’t have to agree with everything Trump does to have respect for him.
You could probably run up to 85% ethanol. Would smell like vodka and have horrible mileage though.
Look at your owners manual to make sure of the octane rating. In the east coast, most of the ethanol gas is just horrible crap that they add ethanol to in order to bring up to selleble levels. All new engines have better seals than the mid 80’s and older ones that would get eaten out. Also the new gas is much more refined so you don’t have to worry about adding ethanol to an old tank and having all the wax be cleaned off into your filters.
No danger. A buddy has a Challenger two years old that he runs e!5 in.
A used volkswagon rabbit pick up truck.
Thank you very much.
Got a lot of info today.
Trump eliminated an EPA restriction on corn production.
I respect president Trump as much as anyone. But when he screws up and listens to GOPe crony capitalists, I’ll call him out.
YOU are paying for these ethanol subsidies.
2. Depends how you calculate it. Pimetal’s study said that ethanol is a net negative, but he assumed that all the roads, tractors, and such were only built for ethanol production. In short, the corn is going to be grown one way or another. When I did a similar balance for Iraqi oil (with the added military occupation and deployment costs) it was also a net negative. The Ithaca study is flawed. A better energy balance shows a net positive energy balance on corn ethanol and a negative on cellulose. If you want to have your head explode, do a life cycle cost on hybrid and electric cars. Lithium batteries and transmission electricity are horribly inefficient.
3. It does not improve mileage. EtOH has less energy than gas. It does however act as an extender. Using ethanol was a great policy against the Middle East (most of the above mention studies were paid for by Saudi).
4. Depends on the study, but was I said above the corn a wet mill buys for say, corn flakes, will have a bit of a premium over corn for ethanol. Locally, the wet mills will pay for a nickel or dime premium over the dry mills (wet make a more varied product line than just ethanol). In areas without an ADM or Cargill plant, farmers get a bit more for ethanol corn because they don't have to ship it over 500 miles. Most of the wet mills pull in from over 300 miles (or more) via rail, barge and truck. Most dry mills tend to stay more local. Spent grains for cattle feed actually make meat prices cheaper, as it goes for less per protein pound than corn. I know of quite a few cattle operations that partner with or build ethanol plants just for the feed. This also gives them other revenue streams (ethanol, fusel oil, CO2, etc) than just beef.
5. Credits help. A great many plants have structured themselves only to be profitable with the credits. That is a failure of the industry. I also know quite a few who, while they will apply for the credits, they don't rely on them (Flint Hills requires that they be profitable without any blending credits). The smaller CO OP plants will not work without some sort of credit by design. That is a long and angry story about some rather evil fly by night companies who would come in a build badly designed plants. Many of those company execs are in some rather deep legal trouble now.
I have no problem with allowing E15 all year, if they also remove the mandatory E10. Allow everywhere to sell real gas, not just small towns over an hour away!
Boo...
Thank you for this. WHen I say corn for food, I meant for cattle too.
So, you’re saying if they were to stop ethanol production, it would:
1. Not lower food prices.
2. NOt raise gas prices.
3. Would impact on farmers, as it would remove a market for them.
4. Not sure if you answered the question about subsidies. Would the ethanol business go down the tubes if there were no tax credits or gov’t subsidies?
5. Has Trump removed all subsidies? Any?
If the corn farmers had any sense, they would realize that subsidies and government interference in the market actually hurt them. It keeps marginal farmers hanging on when they should quit, it favors large ag businesses over family farms, and it contributes to distortions in pricing and to surpluses that glut the market.
USE THE EFFIN CORN FOR SOMETHING ELSE.
KEEP IT AWAY FROM OUR ENGINES
“For my small engines I’ve even resorted to stripping out the ethanol from the gas with water. That lowers the octane a couple of points though, so I start out with a higher grade”
How do you do this, E10 is killing my lawn mowers, weed eaters, chain saws and other small gasoline engines!
Ethanol has a greater affinity for water than gasoline.
You add water to the gasohol
Shake it up.
Let it settle.
Drain out the water with the ethanol.
Leaving alcohol free gasoline
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