Posted on 05/31/2011 1:44:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Sarah Palin was asked Tuesday about the sticky subject of ethanol subsidies, and she said that not only they should they be squelched but that all federal energy subsidies should be eradicated.
"I think that all of our energy subsidies need to be relooked at today and eliminated," Palin told Real Clear Politics at a coffee shop in Dillsburg, Pa. "And we need to make sure that we're investing and allowing our businesses to invest in reliable energy products right now that aren't going to necessitate subsidies because, bottom line, we can't afford it."
Ever the maverick, Palin was responding was in direct opposition to Mitt Romney, who last week in Iowa, came out in favor of government subsidies for ethanol, the fuel produced from corn and other farm products.
"I support the subsidy of ethanol. I believe ethanol's an important part of our energy solution in this country," Romney told a supporter from West Des Moines on Friday.
Neither former governor has officially stated his or her intention to run for the GOP nomination for president; however, Romney is expected to throw his hat in the ring later this week.
One former governor who has committed to running is Tim Pawlenty. In fact, it was in his statement announcing his candidacy that he also backed the elimination of ethanol and other energy subsidies. Unlike Palin, however, Pawlenty wants to take it slowly.....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
“It is the free market when Alaskan “voters” are the OWNERS of the resource.”
Really? If that is not a socialist view of ownership, I don’t know what is.
If you want to argue that all of Alaska is antithetical to the Free Market because the citizens of Alaska own the natural resources - then make that argument - Palin isn't against the Free Market for making sure the owners of the resource get a better deal.
Who do you think should own the resources in Alaska? Sold to the highest bidder with the profits going to the State? Profits going to the citizens?
What is the difference between a one time deal for the profit of the citizens, and retaining ownership for the yearly profit of the citizens?
Ethanol subsidies make me sick to my stomach. Another example of do nothing, fiscal incompetency in our elected officials.
I’m not sure about the other subsidies. If they are in the form of tax credits as you would for other industries, I think that is warranted. But out and out subsidies is wrong.
Paying farmers not to plant. Is that still going on?
I think it’s a travesty. A complete travesty that you burn our food to obtain fuel to drive out cars. This is pure sickness.
What is wrong with our politicians? Is there no one fiscally responsible up there in Washington?
The last little bit of respect I had for Romney is out the door.
How can anyone back ethanol subsidies?
Been such a long time since I have stumbled on a zot, got carried away...you may now return to your regularly scheduled thread.
Great post, I like your style.
BTW, I would not pillory a farmer...they have land, and have to produce. If the government says “Hey, here is some money available to make this crop very profitable for you to grow...” they are going to see a bottom line like most other people, especially if they aren’t interested in the technical aspects of whether it is really a good idea to oxygenate or not, and whether the downstream uses of the crop are really, REALLY going to help anything.
Once again, I blame the same people you do: Envirowhackos, statists and liberals.
ALL liberals think they can lay their hands on the machinery of some process and make it work oh-so-better than it EVER could if you just kept your hands off and added a drop of oil here and there to just keep the machinery running smoothly on its own.
That is why they ALL love centralized government solutions, and why they are all communists or statists at heart.
“Some ranchers will raise hogs...and some will even admit to it. Either way, they’re raisin’ hogs...”
(I just saw that quote the other day, and was looking for a reason to use it...it wasn’t meant as an insult...I will forever be in debt to hog farmers for satisfying my culinary desires!)
I am with you 100%. We also need to figure out a way to get our hands on the oil in shale as well.
I have never, never, never understood it...I always assumed that the unions supported Barack Obama against the will of the rank and file who heard the open declaration by the candidate to destroy their livelihoods.
Did the unions NOT support Barack Obama? I would like to hear I was wrong in that assumption...
Oh, for sure — I wasn’t trying to refigure out how much energy goes into making ethanol compared to what comes out. I was just curious as to how much fuel machines of that type and scale go through, in a more general sense. Thanks for the info. :-)
As an aside, gas prices are really bizarre in this area right now. I go back and forth between So. IL and W. KY pretty often, and, for example, in recent years, 87 octane gas in the Carbondale, IL area, is usually about 10 cents higher than around Paducah, KY. The differential may have been slightly higher, since gas topped $3 / gal. (The towns are of comparable size, but Paducah is of course on the Ohio River, and taxes are higher in IL.)
Today, gas in C’Dale was $3.89.9 - $3.99.9, but the stations I saw around Paducah were $3.47.9. You know where I filled up!!!
One last question (I think):
Ok, let’s say the ethanol subsidy (blenders’ credit to the oil companies) is ended. How then would feed grain be processed (ie., would feed itself end up with a different composition than it does now?), and where would the by-products end up? Would there be other useful markets for them?
Someone mentioned methane as a by-product (I’m not sure if they meant as a by-product from processing corn for feed, or as produced by cattle digesting corn or feed!) It would seem that if the former was significant, the methane could be collected. (Maybe.)
Looking at it from another angle, I’m no enviro-whacko, but, methane IS a powerful greenhouse gas.
Re: Ethanol.....does BURNING FOOD in your gas tank really sound like a good idea to you?
Worst case for ethanol is that the price of corn relative to gasoline stays high - ie, gas prices come down, corn prices do not (or go higher). This could happen later this year, what with the amount of flooded farmland out in the corn belt and the demand from China.
The ethanol profit ends at this point, and the plants go belly-up. They would no longer be producing distillers’ grains.
The market for feeds is very large and very liquid. There is some arb between corn and other grain feeds, and some arb between soybeans (protein) vs. alfalfa hay or other higher protein feed rations. But in the winter, when you want to put weight on a cow, you need a big excess metabolic energy component in your ration. There’s only so much a cow can eat in a day, and you could kill a cow in the winter by feeding it low-calorie fluff (eg, rained-on timothy grass hay) that tastes OK, but has very low metabolic energy and low fiber relative to what they need for keeping warm.
Anyway, corn and barley are about the only two grain feeds that you could feed to a cow in winter to make them *gain* weight throughout the winter, as opposed to merely stand in place. DDG’s also fall into this category of feed product. There’s a market for DDG’s. Some producers don’t like it and whine about it, but that’s in part because they were getting SUCH a great deal on corn at $2/bu. Corn used to be incredibly cheap. So damn cheap that it was hard to make a profit on corn by doing anything OTHER than feeding it to cows or pigs. If ethanol went under, the feedlots would rejoice and say “Goodie, more corn for us” and promptly resume buying corn in vast quantities. Beef and pork prices would come down a bit and we’d go on.
There would be a lot of money in the ethanol infrastructure that would be stranded capital, tho.
No worse that farmers and other people in the midwest burning corn in their corn stoves when the price of natural gas and propane shot through the roof.
People have been burning corn and other consumables for centuries. You can burn corn stover too, and that is widely done in the midwest and Canada. Bale up the stover in a big round bale, stuff it into an outdoor biomass furnace and you’re done feeding your heat system for the entire day.
Corn stoves are like wood pellet stoves, only with a shaker to get the clinker to drop down.
What a babe!
Sarah Palin is almost as smart and beautiful as my wife!
“I would crawl over broken glass, naked, covered in lemon juice to vote for this woman.”
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That’s nothing! Would you spend an evening with Helen Thomas for a chance to vote for Sarah?
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