STOP THE ETHANOL NONSENSE

The Institute for Energy Research, the Sierra Club, WWF and even Al Gore now all agree that ethanol was a mistake and it's time to end ethanol subsidies

Ethanol tax credits and renewable energy grants are among the worst government programs ever conceived.  As we have seen in countless examples around the world, policies that promote the green economy myth achieve nothing but increased government spending and higher energy prices and higher food prices for consumers.

During the last decade, ethanol enjoyed a good run as a mythical part of the solution to the mythical global warming problem. Then, environmentalists began to realize it actually increases greenhouse emissions.  Ethanol does releases less carbon dioxide per gallon than gasoline.  However, once the emissions necessary to convert land to corn production and then grow and process it are taken into account, ethanol doesn't look so green anymore.

So much corn (about 40 percent of the US crop) is used to feed the government-created demand for the fuel that it is increasing world-wide food prices.  In short, in exchange for not reducing greenhouse emissions, ethanol reduces the availability of food to the poor.  Engines can run on gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, wood or electricity so there is no need to burn our food crops.

The multiple layers of subsidization have their own perversity. Since there's already a mandate to blend ethanol into gasoline, the tax credit is giving away money for something that is already mandated to happen anyway.  Environmental groups say this accomplishes nothing other than padding the bottom line of Big Oil.

But who cares about the facts?  Once we have fired up a vast machine that from cornfield to distilleries produces 38 million gallons of ethanol a day, it will be nearly impossible to turn it off.  Too many people will have a vested interest in continuing the scam, and its supporters will always argue that any change is too disruptive. We'll probably still be mandating ethanol long after the internal-combustion engine is obsolete.

Why should we care?  Because corn is in everything. It’s in your soda, syrup, shaving cream and licorice. You can find corn in batteries, ink and mayonnaise.  It’s used to feed the animals that end up on your dinner table. There are thousands of uses for corn, but the least efficient and most costly use is ethanol to blend with gasoline.

Like most people, I discovered long ago that my car runs better and gets much better mileage on pure gasoline than on gasoline with ethanol.  There are fewer service stations selling “pure gas” with each passing month, and it’s getting quite a bit more expensive than the ethanol blend.  I am now paying about ten cents per gallon more fore pure gas, but it is still less expensive because of the improved mileage.
The ethanol blend would actually be more expensive than pure gasoline if our stupid federal government was not subsidizing ethanol with six billion dollars a year of our tax money.  This subsidy is to help offset production costs for refiners who blend gasoline with ethanol.


There are a number of problems with blending ethanol with gasoline, but don’t take my word for it.  Forbes called extending the ethanol subsidy ”...fiscally irresponsible.” On the other end of the business spectrum, Friends of the Earth explained that large scale argo-fuels are “ecologically unsustainable and inefficient.” Freedom Works summed up their stance on ethanol by saying it’s, “net loser for the economy, the environment, and for our energy security.” The World Wildlife Fund and the Sierra Club agree with Reason in that ethanol has done nothing to reduce green house gas emissions and has not weaned American’s off of imported oil. And the U.N.‘s special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, called biofuels a “crime against humanity” because they use food for fuel instead of feeding the poor.

But the most telling insight into the ethanol subsidy debate came from Mr. “global warming” himself, Al Gore.  In a candid moment, he told reporters that “ethanol” was a mistake and that he only favored ethanol because he represented farmers in Tennessee (this does not explain why Gore’s supported ethanol in An Inconvenient Truth after he left office) In the end, ethanol has come to represent Al Gore’s billion dollar mistake.

Governments are planning to triple ethanol production by 2020. The effect of this on world food supplies will be worse than a worldwide drought lasting for decades.

For the last century, world food production has benefitted greatly from a natural cycle of global warming which has produced increasing carbon dioxide plant food in the atmosphere.

This warming has now halted and global cooling will be with us for who knows how long this cooling will no doubt reduce world food production.

“Crops for Cars” is very risky and costly for all mankind. Ethanol production will have no effect on climate, damages the environment, is a poor fuel, and sets the stage for world famine.

Time to end all ethanol subsidies and mandates.