Posted on 05/26/2005 5:17:06 AM PDT by OESY
Tom Daschle may be in forced retirement..., but it seems Republicans are only too happy to preserve one of his legacies. As the Senate turns... to its uninspired energy bill, the majority party is busy passing an enormous ethanol mandate that would make even corn farmers blush.
The taxpayers and drivers who get to fund this special interest extravaganza can thank Missouri Senator Jim Talent, [who] pushed an amendment through the Energy and Natural Resources Committee yesterday that would require drivers to use eight billion gallons of ethanol a year by 2012. The proceeds from this forced product march would be funneled into the pockets of Midwest farmers and giant agribusiness concerns....
The terms of this mandate are munificent, because every gallon of ethanol blended into gasoline receives a 51-cent subsidy. An eight-billion-gallon mandate translates into an extra $2.3 billion windfall for the ethanol lobby. The mandate would also raise gas prices, especially outside the Midwest where ethanol is costly to ship. Even a five-billion-gallon mandate is estimated to add some $8.4 billion to fuel costs over each of the next five years, on top of today's already high pump prices.
Ethanol supporters argue that a mandate will make the country more energy "independent." But even eight billion gallons of ethanol is but a drop in the U.S. motor fuel market and will in no way liberate Americans from Saudi crude. What it does threaten to do is put pressure on already scarce fuel-refining capacity, further adding to gasoline bills. Ethanol was also once thought to reduce smog, but the National Academy of Sciences has since said such fuel "oxygenates" have little impact on air quality. Some studies have shown that the process of creating and distributing ethanol uses more fossil fuels and causes more pollution than it prevents....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Farm Subsidies by another name are still Farm Subsidies - and they all are nothing more than a government handout or welfare program.
Just like there was a report yesterday the we have overbuilt golf courses, we have overbuilt ethanol plants. I would not invest any of my money in it.
This Nation is spending itself, and our greatgrandchildren into the ground. Where is the goobermint going to get the money to pay for their special-interest largesse? The taxpayers... that's where.
It is way past time for the professional political class to remember that this country was founded in a tax revolt, and we are damnewd close to another one.
This time, it won't be tea that gets spilled.
You know what you're talking about.
I'm sorry! I will feed the Viking Kitties nothing but fresh dolphin tuna for the next week!
Americans today aren't made of a tenth of the the stuff of Revolutionary Americans. Americans today will just continue to take it until the country implodes. Rather than witnessing the start of a tax revolt, we're just witnessing the end of a nation.
It will never happen. the oil companies will block it.
Gee, that's funny. Our Mininapolis paper ran a piece praising our democrat senator for being the driving force behind this.
Dayton to Pump Ethanol
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5423968.html
You still need tons of oil, pesticides and petrochemicals, oil again, and machinary, refining, and trucking to deliver the ethanol.
I know we have some supersuper bright people out there who can think of something else.
1. ethanol is crap, no power, might as well light farts.
2. Costs many times more than anything else.
3. Only stupid people would go for it, woops, answered my own question.......
Ethanol is not crap.. true it has less energy per gallon, but it burns cooler, with virtually no detonation, which means you can turn up the timing advance skyhigh and the boost if you're running a blower, and make killer power with ethanol.
As for cost, I'm not going to give specific names and locations, but I know from relatives that used to make it for "consumption" purposes and also used it to fuel the runner vehicles, when the figured production cost, that it cost about $30 to set up everything to have the materials to get started, but once it was running, it cost 2 cents per gallon to make, when gasoline was costing 15-20 cents per gallon.
Ethanol for June delivery is presently quoted on the Chicago Board of Trade at $1.19 per gallon. What did you pay for your last gallon of gasoline?
Alot cheaper than $1.19 if equally subsidized.
If the powers that be (whom I term Sneakyman Inc.) wanted cleanliness, efficiency, etc., we would have had HPFI (high pressure fuel injection) 60~70 years ago & would never have needed Mid-east oil.
It's not about what we think it's about.
The subsidy is a "blending credit" received by the oil company (not the farmer or corn processor) for mixing ethanol with gasoline.
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