Posted on 11/22/2010 5:28:16 PM PST by outinyellowdogcountry
ATHENS, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore said support for corn-based ethanol in the United States was "not a good policy", weeks before tax credits are up for renewal. Total U.S. ethanol subsidies reached $7.7 billion last year according to the International Energy Industry, which said biofuels worldwide received more subsidies than any other form of renewable energy. "It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first generation ethanol," said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank. "First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small. "It's hard once such a programme is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going." He explained his own support for the original programme on his presidential ambitions. "One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president." The U.S. ethanol industry will consume about 41 percent of the U.S. corn crop this year, or 15 percent of the global corn crop, according to Goldman Sachs analysts. A food-versus-fuel debate erupted in 2008, in the wake of record food prices, where the biofuel industry was criticised for helping stoke food prices. "The size, the percentage of corn particularly, which is now being (used for) first generation ethanol definitely has an impact on food prices. "The competition with food prices is real."
(Excerpt) Read more at af.reuters.com ...
I hope Ethanol was not a Republican idea. It was stupid from the start.
Duh. Leftists. They love their crap until they hate it.
So when will they realize that today’s crap is crap? 100 years?
Gore: “One of the reasons I made that mistake is...” I am a politician.
Please stop trusting us forever.
it got Dem-RINO support IIRC
Now I’m confused - if algore is agin it I should probably be fer it - but making gasoline out of food always seemed like a dumb idea to me. What to do what to do?
New mantra:
Algore’s fault.
What's that?
I am amazed that Gore said what he did. He as good as said that he did it to please his state constituents, and then to please the voters in Ohio just before the primaries started.
Yes, I figure Gore, dumb as he is, knew from the start that this was a stupid idea. But I never expected him to admit it.
I know a lot of leftie environmentalists, and they have all come around to agreeing that ethanol was a stupid idea. But Gore sure fooled them earlier.
Why can’t they keep this freak over there?
Currently, using corn to capture solar energy is the best method available in the US to reduce dependence on foreign oil. Clearly, the urbanites don’t understand that besides ETOH, a high protein livestock feed is also part of the equation along with a cellulose source for either cattle fodder or another ETOH source. Don’t be misled by the oil lobbies that have supplied misinformation to undermine the competition that ETOH is a part of.
For those of you worried about ETOH cutting into your feedgrade consumption of corn, most wouldn’t be hurt, but helped, by the reduced caloric intake. Not implying you are obese, but check out the average weight of an American these days—it ain’t a pretty sight.
This boondoggle came from both sides of the aisle. The farmers were given massive subsidies for dumping any other crops to go grow corn. The lobbyists representing them threw a lot of money around to keep it going. Politicians, both repubs and dems, rode it hard as it was an easy way to claim they were supporting alternative fuels and being “green”.
But behind all this crap, anyone who did even a small amount of investigative work saw what a disaster this was.
Basically, the amount of fresh water used for growing enough corn for even a gallon of ethanol was a tremendous waste.
What next? Gore admits there is no global warming?? Gore will eventually admit he didn’t invent the internet too!
Thank God Gore was not President, because we would all be wearing head wraps, and have been attacked daily. Weakness shows!
1. Does the incorporation of ethanol into motor fuel raise, or lower, the pump price?
2. Does the incorporation of ethanol into motor fuel improve, or reduce, efficiency (as measured by mpg).
3. Does the incoorporation of ethanol into motor fuel do a damn thing to reduce harmful emissions -- which was its original justification?
4. In the absence of massive subsidies, would ethanol be any factor whatsoever in our energy supply?
A simple "yes" or "no" will suffice.
The new gig now that the carbon trading global warming scam has been exposed is food shortage. They tried to control us with the energy/ global warming scam and now its food shortage. Surprise!
The question Mr. Gore must answer now is ‘What other hair brained ideas that you have endorsed are also not good policy for the USA.’ Hmmmmm, how about CAP-&-TRADE !? It’s because we permit morons of such caliber as Gore to be placed in positions of political power that we end up with policies that are ill advised and harmful to the nation. How any person or party could vote to elect Ms. Pelosi as their political leader is proof that too many Americans are not understanding the long term significance of their choices. The list of failed experiments with a high price tag in both dollars and jobs has gotten too long not to have enough evidence of no-confidence in progressive policies. I often wonder what would a Constitutional Amendment that would stop this from occurring look like. Yet it continues with crap like the new Foods Act being debated presently. The assault on liberties continues unabated and to each our peril.
Everyone new that it was stupid, except the corn producers
who would get way over value for their product, by way of
government subsides, the politicians who would get brownie
points from the radical environmentalists, who will do
anything to harm our country and capitalism.
Taking human food to produces fuel for our cars when better
fuel at a lower price (gasoline) is available wrong in so
many ways.
Stupid is as stupid does.
“What next? Gore admits there is no global warming??”
_____________________________________________________
Cap and Retreat [Chicago Climate Exchange shuts down]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2631506/posts
Subsidized ethanol needs to go. Any source of energy in this country needs to stand on it’s own.
We still need to be creating markets for ag products despite how bad ethanol is. We are simply too productive to not have an added-value ag policy in this country.
Rather than an ethanol type policy which takes the carbs and ferments them, then uses the rest for animal feed, we need to do things the exact opposite - extract the proteins, fats, pharma- and nutraceuticals first, then ferment the remaining sugars into something useful, and not ethanol.
That’s how we need to do added-value ag.
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