Posted on 05/17/2008 9:22:13 AM PDT by Kevin J waldroup
The “food versus fuel” debate being waged in the United States has been nothing more than a cleverly planned public relations campaign. A request for a public relations proposal put forth by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the media campaign response by the Glover Park Group prove that there has been a concerted effort to attack the ethanol industry. Both documents were recently made public by long-time ethanol advocate, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
The GMA represents more than 300 food, beverage and consumer household goods companies in the United States. The association released a request for a public relations campaign to combat the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The request states: “GMA has concluded that rising food prices, global shortages of basic commodities, and new studies on the environmental impacts of corn ethanol create a window to change perceptions about the benefits of bio-fuels and the mandate and, ultimately, to build a groundswell in support of freezing or reversing some provisions of the 2007 Energy Bill…”
The response to the GMA’s request by the Glover Park Group lays out a strategy to undermine the ethanol industry: “First, we must obliterate whatever intellectual justification might still exist for corn-based ethanol among policy elites.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ethanolproducer.com ...
What a crock, no one is telling these thieves that they cannot make ethanol, just make it on your own dime without mandates. Stop sucking on the government tit!!
Even if it were, ethanol DESERVES TO BE VILIFIED!!!!!!
Gee, I wonder who's paying the difference? </sarcasm>
I was against it before the GMA began their campaign. More drilling for domestic oil is the only way to go. Subsidizing farmers to grow non-food crops is not the way to go.
You have to love the slant this is given. Laying out the facts regarding ethanol is considered “vilification.”
I, for one, don’t care to put something in my tank that is only 70% as efficient as gasoline. Not like I’m going to pay 70% less for ethanol.
PS Grow mole food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
using food for fuel when the petroleum we have in the ground is as massive as it is is just plain stupid. Drill it out and let’s get back to exporting food at a reasonable price. It’s beyond stupid and immoral.
So PR campaigns are not okay. However did ethanol get the blessings of Congress without PR work? Or is this another case of okay for me, not okay for you?
If it’s such a great idea, it doesn’t need a subsidy. Get out of the way and let the market work.
Sheesh, our taxpayer dollars are PAYING for this propaganda outlet disguised as a “magazine.”
Excellent post, however, some of the pr work given in congress was nothing but out right lies.
I wonder if those who are paying for E85 realize they aren’t saving any money? If I remember correctly, ethanol is only 70% as efficient as gasoline. Which means a pretty good drop in mileage.
Break even works out to $2.51/gal. (I took 70% of the price of gasoline to arrive at my figure.)
So the whole effort to get subsidies passed for ethanol wasn’t a PR campaign?
E85 is at least a dollar cheaper here than gasoline at the pump, around $2.40 a week or so ago. I suspect transportation has something to do with why it is so much higher there.
No, actually it is just that too many people have studied Chemistry, and the scam is falling apart.
Ethanol is this century’s snake oil.
Likewise....
STATISTICS vs. STUPIDITY!!!
****************
ALL my vehicles have lost mileage and performance since the ethanol requirements showed up at the fuel pump!!
**************
TIME TO....
Drill... Distill... Drive!!
JMHO!
Excellent!
How about the Eviro-Facist Left next?
Yeah... it couldn't possibly be common sense observation of the dynamics of another failed government pork program. /s
By paying for subsidies, you aren’t even seeing some of your cost up front.
No kidding.
All of this because celebrities, gutless pandering politicians and a few lunatic fringe envirowackos outlawed domestic exploration and drilling.
What's not to like about this "fuel"?
I’m pretty sure E-85 is 85% ethanol, not 15%.
E85 is blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Its benefits include reduced emissions of greenhouse gases and a reduced dependence on petroleum. GM is the leader in E85 production models, with more than 2.5 million E85-capable cars, trucks and SUVs on the road – with more on the way. Chevrolet offers seven E85-capable models in 2008.
This is a typical leftist response to effective arguments. Do not talk about the substance but instead talk about the method or nature of the attack. We should learn that the only technique to debate a leftist is to hit them hard enough to make them cry. I’m so tired. Why are we even debating the silliness of creating fuel highly inefficiently from corn? It never could’ve been a solution for our fuel “needs no more than solar or any of the other crack pot ideas that have been presented. Hydrogen could work but it would not be the panacea presented by the left. There is no free lunch, we need to stop looking at pie in the sky and deal with what we have to work with and that is leverage the massive coal, oil, and nuclear resources that are still available to us until we can move onto something else.
Conservation and all the other “green” ideas are not feasible unless we are willing to give up huge amounts of personal liberty for less and less return. It is not only unnecessary but foolish and would result in millions of people dying as we refuse to use the resources we have in hopes of a miracle solution. We should punish politicians who have not given us more refineries and who have refused to let us drill the oil on the coast and in the ANWR. The Chinese are drilling off the coast of Cuba tapping billions of barrels of oil available to us also if only we could throw off the yoke of the Democrat radical environmentalists.
That is another thing. Why in the hell hasn’t the GOP gotten a clue when it comes to how to attack the Democrats. They and their constitutes are more responsible than anyone other group for our inability to of the US to effectively deal with out energy needs. They have stood in the way of building new refineries, have locked millions of tons of coal and billions of barrels of oil out of reach. They have stood in the way of Nuclear power and all the while having us waste billions chasing pipe dreams and global warming.
Why doesn’t someone in the GOP figure this out? Are they really the bunch of senile old men and Northern VA yuppies they appear to be who wouldn’t know conservatism if it bit them in the ass?
We could go on with issue after issue. All the social issues and immigration. Most of America does not want Homosexual marriage, most of America believes it is a disgusting behavior, the same goes for abortion, and most of America believes in strong borders. How can you not win when one party, the Democrats, have so entirely embraced the radicals on the left? Is there anyone one groups which is more Anti-American and ready to rush into the arms of our enemies? If the GOP does not wake up and realize this is war not a tea party they are going to cast this country into the hands of Barack Obama and set back conservatism even further than it has already been set back.
I’m beginning to believe what we need to do is start a shadow party which funnels donations only to candidates who are conservative and believe in the founding principles. The Bloombergs, the Schwarzeneggers, and countless others are blurring the identity of the Republican party and making it a impossible to restrain the beast of bureaucracy that is “slouching towards Gomorrah”. If someone doesn’t wake up and stop the insanity and provide some vision that isn’t tinged with 60s love ballads for Democrat and Republican unity (which means they win and we give in) then we are going to face an even darker generation dominated even more by judicial oligarchy and legislative disregard for the constitution.
I don’t mind being corrected, as I didn’t know E85 was gasoline/ethanol mixture.
However, get off your high horse and try posting in a respectful manner.
By the way, I did the math correctly, based on E85 being pure ethanol.
People are attacking the ethanol industry because IT’S A BAD IDEA! The ethanol as fuel industry only exists because of the government is currying favor with special interests. Or is it the other way around? Whatever. It is not efficient and is not the answer to our energy needs.
Ethanol belongs in a bottle or can. Usually with “Beefeater” or “Coors” written on it. It doesn’t belong in my gas tank.
Good for them. I'm all behind the GMA on this one. If Grassley wants ethanol so badly then let him make it out of seaweed, algae, kudzu, or the corn that issues forth from his own mouth and Congress -- not the things we actually digest.
I always get a chuckle of wonderment when some green brags that ETOH is “cheaper” than gasoline. When you factor in the mileage loss due to less heat of combustion of 15%(due to the right wing conspiracy), the true cost of ETOH is:
3.59/.85 =$3.74/gallon. Of course not counting the subsidy, which we should all be willing to pay, in order to “save the planet”& ‘punish the Arabs ( this to appeal to the average bitter white person”).
barbra ann
The amount of energy it takes to make ethanol means we end up giving more money to the thugs of the world, and we end up with an inferior product.
Ethanol is the ‘E’ at the start of EVIL in dEVIL rum!
Mark
It’s the other way around. E85 is 85% ethanol.
What’s sold regularly at gas stations is E10 or E15.
Ethanol is senseless when we have enough used animal and vegetable fat annually to run 65% of America’s diesel trucks for a year. Companies like SafeRenewables and Aegis Biofuels are already doing this. I guess biofuel from fat just isn’t sexy enough yet. Wait until we get to $6 diesel fuel.
Ethanol is the biggest hoax next to global warming.
Actually, you've got that backwards. E85 is 85% ethanol, 15% gasoline. E10 and E15 are common, using ethanol as an oxygenator, but even there, you'll find a marked reduction in gas mileage and power - enough to notice. This is also is why you have to have a "Flex Fuel" car in order to use E85. If you don't, the car simply can't deal with the different fuel/air mixture requirements, and as a bonus, if you can get it to run at all, expect to have some serious repair bills in the not too distant future, as you'll probably need to replace fuel lines, seals, and valve guides at the very least.
Mark
The government of the US will destroy the US.
Let’s investigate the obscene profits of distilleries.
First, the bad news about ethanol. Ethanol fires are evidently harder to control than gasoline fires.
Ethanol fires hard to control 1Hopefully, ways will be developed to make controlling ethanol fires easier.
Ethanol fires hard to control 2
On the brighter side concerning ethanol, there's now evidence that people might get as much, or more, bang per buck for their gas dollars with gas / ethanol mixtures.
Gas-competitive gas / ethanol mixturesAlso, I was surprised by the introduction of a machine (popularly known as a still) for making home-made ethanol.
EFuel100In stark contrast to the 1700 gallons of water required to make one gallon of corn-based ethanol as indicated by the OP, the EFuel100 uses only 170 gallons of water to produce 35 gallons of ethanol In other words, the EFuel100 uses less than 1% (about 0.2%) as much water as corn ethanol, under five gallons, to produce one gallon of ethanol. But also note that the water used in the EFuel100 process does not take into account the water needed to produce the sugar that is used for this process.
And watch out for fines for violating biofuel regulations.
Fines for violating biofuel regulationsAlso, progress is being made in the development of other non-corn ethanol production technologies as well.
Non-corn ethanolNext, I've also been hearing good things about biodiesel production but need to find some links.
Finally, although I don't use this product, since people are starting to use bicycles more, people might be interested in this autoshifting bicycle.
Autoshifting bicycle
Tell me how?
Any vehicle that runs on gasoline can run on ethanol.
And now the patent-pending technology in the EFuel100 MicroFueler™ makes home ethanol distillation possible, cost-effective, and safe.
See product details for information and photos. They did a 5 minute interview with this guy. He's the inventor of something that was a technological advance in video gaming some time back
He has invented an ethanol maker. It's quite impressive in it's thought thru design and not bad at all for the first shot out of the box. Sounds promising.
The fact that it can be turned into a "do it yourself" process could be the beginning of a new era for folks.
Remember when you had to go to a printer to get something printed? I'm sure you get my point.
My goodness all this anti ethanol propaganda and none of it’s detractors can remember all the tax credits given to the oil industry. Hmmm
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