E15, Liberal Dreams Have Consequences

We drive. They starve. Everybody PAYS.

Hey folks,

Not to mention, no one knows how it will ACTUALLY effect, well, ANYTHING. Happy Tuesday to you. YES. That WAS me on the Tom Sullivan Radio Show on Friday talking about Housing. I was on the Third Hour, first up. I was talking about the best, and only way, to speed up the Housing "Recovery." I will elaborate more on this tomorrow. However, since it is Tuesday, time to check in at the Energy Front.

So you may have heard, the E.P.A. is considering raising the maximum blend of ethanol in unleaded gasoline from 10 percent to 15%. Great. So what's the problem? No one knows how it will effect the Engine, Pollution, OR the World Food Source.

So let me ask you a question. You are a Farmer. You grow products that feed the the masses. You get X amount per acre. It's enough to barely get you by. Some years are better than others. Then along comes the Government. They say we will pay you a GUARANTEED amount for you to grow Corn. That's roughly 120 bushels per acre of Corn that yield 300 gallons of ethanol. They will even give you MORE to subsidize you, just in case. They will also herald you as someone on the cutting edge and a Hero, for doing your part, in saving the planet. Most stop growing FOOD, and start growing "Fuel."

Remember stories like these? Media Research Center - Ethanol Being Blamed for Global Food Riots New York Times columnist praised by Pulitzer board for 'clarity of vision' didn't foresee global food shortages that resulted from the realities of his vision. By Jeff Poor Business & Media Institute 4/11/2008 5:48:11 PM

As riots over food shortages are breaking out in Haiti, Egypt and other parts of Africa, the media are looking for a culprit. ABC’s April 10 “World News with Charles Gibson” identified one culprit of this global strife: biofuels.

“[P]rices are rising across Africa, pushed up by the cost of oil and demand for biofuels,” ABC correspondent Jim Sciutto said.

“Those biofuels are in fact a large part of the equation,” ABC correspondent David Muir added. “Many farmers around the world, who once grew wheat and rice, now grow corn and sugar cane instead to produce ethanol, a more lucrative market.”

It's pretty hard for most to turn down a GUARANTEE profit. Some Kooks, would LOVE to see Oil Prices out of reach. Some Libs back then even admitted it. Listen to this Idiot.

Flash back to two years ago – Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, author of “The World Is Flat,” appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on March 9, 2006. He made a very bold statement about his preferred direction for the future of U.S. energy policy.

“[C]harlie, if they [Iran] cut off oil and oil went to $100 a barrel – that would make my day, because the sooner we go to $100 a barrel, the sooner we’re going to have everyone in America driving a plug-in hybrid car fueled by corn and ethanol,” Friedman said. “And I think that would be a great thing. And that would ultimately free us from having to worry about these people.”

Yeah the DREAM. But as we know, the Liberal Dream usually doesn't even come close to resemblance of any type of actual REALITY. Not only did this hurt the Food sources, but it was also blamed for INCREASED Pollution.

An April 7 Time magazine article also blamed ethanol for the quickened clearing of Brazilian rainforests, as farmers move to plant more soy to meet the demand created as American farmers switch from soy to corn to feed ethanol mandates.

Then you had THIS Story. From CNN - Riots, instability spread as food prices skyrocket

"In just two months," Zoellick said in his speech, "rice prices have skyrocketed to near historical levels, rising by around 75 percent globally and more in some markets, with more likely to come. In Bangladesh, a 2-kilogram bag of rice ... now consumes about half of the daily income of a poor family."

The price of wheat has jumped 120 percent in the past year, he said -- meaning that the price of a loaf of bread has more than doubled in places where the poor spend as much as 75 percent of their income on food.

"This is not just about meals forgone today or about increasing social unrest. This is about lost learning potential for children and adults in the future, stunted intellectual and physical growth," Zoellick said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, also spoke at the joint IMF-World Bank spring meeting.

"If food prices go on as they are today, then the consequences on the population in a large set of countries ... will be terrible," he said.

The UK Telegraph - Global warming rage lets global hunger grow By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Published: 12:01AM BST 14 Apr 2008

We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits.

"The reality is that people are dying already," said Jacques Diouf, of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react," he said.

Back in 2009, I talked about all this. I posted OPNTalk - Good Intentions Unintended Consequences

CHICAGO (AFP) – The use of crop-based biofuels could speed up rather than slow down global warming by fueling the destruction of rainforests, scientists warned Saturday.

Once heralded as the answer to oil, biofuels have become increasingly controversial because of their impact on food prices and the amount of energy it takes to produce them.

Yeah, remember the riots? The "Food Wars" that were breaking out? The poor could no longer afford Corn Products and Farmers were rewards a lot of money to set land aside to produce Harvests for Fuel only? That was a great plan.

They could also be responsible for pumping far more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than they could possibly save as a replacement for fossil fuels, according to a study released Saturday.

So? Now, they want to INCREASE this. Add another 5 percent to EVERY GALLON of gas. So look for all this to also increase. Then you have the fact that they do not even know how it will actually WORK. According to Energy Tomorrow - Don't Blend Politics and Science On E15, API President, Jack Gerard, tell us this. Don't Blend Politics and Science on E15
By Jack Gerard Thursday 19 August 2010

Higher-level ethanol blends like E15 have not been proven safe or effective according to preliminary testing to date. These studies are scheduled to be completed in 2011. In addition, EPA is in the midst of the scientific review mandated by the Clean Air Act before new fuels, additives or fuel blends are introduced into commerce.

Despite these ongoing studies, EPA has indicated it may act as soon as September to approve E15 in vehicles. This has alarmed lawmakers and ordinary citizens alike. In July, the House Energy Committee warned EPA that renewable fuels must be introduced in "a manner that adequately protects consumers." A broad coalition of business, consumer and environmental groups also wrote EPA expressing similar concerns.

So untested, untried, and to hell with any unintended consequences, we have to realize the DREAM. I know, I know, that IS Liberalism defined. Quick to Dream, slow to think. Problem is, when you do this, you do not have the time to realize if it IS a dream, or a nightmare in the waiting.
Peter

Sources:
Media Research Center - Ethanol Being Blamed for Global Food Riots
CNN - Riots, instability spread as food prices skyrocket
UK Telegraph - Global warming rage lets global hunger grow
OPNTalk - Good Intentions Unintended Consequences
Energy Tomorrow - Don't Blend Politics and Science on E15

One "Green" Answer Failing Fast

Bad year? Why? Where is Obama?

Hey folks,

I just found this extremely interesting. If you really think about this, it tells you the TRUTH of what is going to happen if the Kooks ever get there way and force us to go "Green" one hundred percent. It also tells you the truth of what the reality is behind the whole thing.

According to the AP - Bad year for biofuel ends on a dour note By SEAN MURPHY, Associated Press Writer Sean Murphy, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jan 1, 2:04 pm ET

OKLAHOMA CITY – An alternative fuel for diesel engines is off to a shaky start this year though it emits fewer pollutants and cuts down on petroleum use because it's made from environmentally friendly waste and vegetable oil.

In the beginning of the whole Biofuel craze, it also started food riots. Remember that?

A federal tax credit that provided makers of biodiesel $1 for every gallon expired Friday. As a result, some U.S. producers say they will shut down without the government subsidy.

Where is the love?

Biodiesel's woes come on top of a year of problems for the fledgling biofuel industry — an irony given the push to cut down on greenhouse gases and ease the nation's need for foreign oil. A key driver for the alternative fuel — the high cost of oil — disappeared as diesel prices dropped 18 percent since the beginning of the recession. Then in March the European Union placed import-killing tariffs on biodiesel and other biofuels.

Which is why Obama said he LIKED High Energy Costs. He LIKED $4.00 plus a gallon.

It was a huge hit for U.S. biofuel makers, with Europe taking 95 percent of all global exports.

Biodiesel, which is usually blended with traditional fuel, had over the past few years been the fastest growing fuel among fleet vehicles like buses, snow plows and garbage trucks.

Those fleets, however, can shift to traditional fuel, as some have, when the prices of diesel drops.

Logic and commonsense.

The biodiesel industry is now operating at only 15 percent of its potential capacity, according to the National Biodiesel Board, largely because the price of traditional diesel has collapsed. There are close to 180 biodiesel plants operating in about 40 states.

The country's largest biodiesel refinery, in Houston, sits idle. Another major refinery in Hoquiam, Wash., that was restarted recently to meet alternative fuel mandates in Oregon and British Columbia was shut down after an explosion in December.

The loss of the tax credit, which helps pay salaries, buy new equipment and in good times to turn a profit, will hit small producers particularly hard.

A one-year extension of the biodiesel tax credit was included in a bill that was approved by the U.S. House recently, but it never made it through the Senate.

Where is Reid? Where is Obama pressuring the Senate to pass the Law? Oh, yeah, they really do not care. They are more worried about the Socialistic Take over of One Sixth of the US Economy. That is more Power, Control, and Money than they get from extending the Tax Credit. But what about saving the Planet?

Lawmakers say the tax-credit will be retroactive if approved.

Production will cease in Valliant, Okla., where Dwight Francis created a biodiesel startup this year as the local timber economy tanked.

For each of the 12,000 gallons of biodiesel that Francis produces each week, he has received a $1 tax credit to help keep operations going.

His company has been riding out the economic downturn until now, thanks to the tax credit.

"By the time you buy the feedstock and the chemicals to produce the fuel, you have more money in it than you get for the fuel without the tax credit," Francis said. "We won't be producing any without the tax credit."

Ethanol producers, for instance, were hit by a string of bankruptcies, next-generation biofuels were stung by scandal.

That's because they really do nothing. Expect RAISE energy cost, and hurt middle America. There are also studies that show Ethanol pollutes MORE than Natural Oil and Natural Gas.

This summer a federal jury found that Cello Energy, a next-generation biofuel company that specialized in plants-to-fuel technology, had defrauded investors. That is expected to leave the Environmental Protection Agency far short of the millions of gallons of biofuel it had planned to blend into traditional fuel this year.

The whole thing is based on a SCAM to begin with.

VeraSun, the country's second largest ethanol producer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October and its assets sold. Other ethanol refineries were swept up for pennies on the dollar.

"You could say the entire biofuels industry has had a rough year," said Robert McCormick, principal engineer at the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

There is little chance that the U.S. will reach alternative fuel benchmarks of 36 billion gallons a year by 2022 in hopes of weaning the nation off foreign oil.

Still, ethanol producers appear to be bouncing back and maintain unflagging political support. And the Department of Energy announced last month that next-generation biofuels would get more than $600 million in federal funding.

Even though they are failing. So why are they not in a rush to fund them? Why did they let the Tax Credit expire? Do we NOT only have like 100 days top save the planet? Wasn't Bio-Fuel suppose to be one of the best "Green" answers we have? It was. Now in real life operation, it is showing to be a failure. So why would we want to continue to throw money away on it. Why would we want to continue to throw more and more money away on OTHER unrealized theories?

I've said this countless time before. I'm all for alternatives. Let's start small. One town say. Convert it to all these theories. Biofuel, Wind, Solar, Hydro, whatever. What fails, DROP IT! What shows signs of success, go with it. Increase the size. A City. Get the bugs out. Find cheaper and more productive ways to operate it. If it works, go BIGGER. Two Cities, three, ETC. Make sure it is affordable for all. Meanwhile, keep the Economy going on what RUNS the Economy. Keep finding ways to make energy more efficient and more affordable for all, using what IS proven. Let's stop trying to destroy Reality, in the hopes of a unrealized dream.
Peter

Sources:
AP - Bad year for biofuel ends on a dour note