Free Republic

Harkin: Gas cheaper because of ethanol By Ian Swanson Posted: 07/24/08 11:39 AM [ET] Ethanol is keeping gas prices as much as 40 cents cheaper, according to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), one of the Senate’s top supporters of corn-based renewable fuels. As a result, the Bush administration should deny Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) request that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cut in half the federal mandate requiring the oil industry to blend 9 million gallons of ethanol into the nation’s gas supply, Harkin said. “Ethanol is keeping gas 24 to 40 cents cheaper than it otherwise would be,” Harkin...

After years of false starts, a new industry selling motor fuel made from waste is getting a big push in the United States, with the first commercial sales possible within months. Many companies have announced plans to build plants that would take in material like wood chips, garbage or crop waste and turn out motor fuels. About 28 small plants are in advanced planning, under construction or, in a handful of cases, already up and running in test mode. For decades scientists have known it was possible to convert waste to fuel, but in an era of cheap oil, it...

The ethanol industry, until recently a golden child that got favorable treatment from Washington, is facing a critical decision on its future. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily waive regulations requiring the oil industry to blend ever-increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline. A decision is expected in the next few weeks. Mr. Perry says the billions of bushels of corn being used to produce all that mandated ethanol would be better suited as livestock feed than as fuel. Feed prices have soared in the last two years as fuel has begun competing with...

Advocates claim that ethanol mandates and subsidies protect our planet, enhance U.S. security, and ease our pain at the pump. In fact, ethanol policy hurts all Americans except for the tiny slice of the population that grows corn or distills it into ethanol. What is ethanol? Basically, in the United States, it is moonshine derived from the starch in corn. You can drink it. Rowdy collegians have been known to mix 1 part ethanol with 40 parts fruit juice to make huge vats of punch for parties. The law does not allow you to drink and drive, but it now...

The increased use of corn-derived ethanol and other bio-fuels has been blamed for rising food prices worldwide. But defenders of these fuels say their impact on food prices is being exaggerated and that new fuels under development will largely bypass that problem in any case. VOA's Greg Flakus has more on the story from College Station, Texas. American corn, wheat and soybean fields feed much of the world and also provide the material from which alcohol fuels like ethanol are produced. Ethanol has benefited the U.S. heartland by giving farmers more stable prices for their grains and creating jobs at...

DNR is dealt a setback to its mission of conservation The agency must use E85 in its vehicles. And, as the ethanol boom grows, grasslands are lost to corn. Before buying vehicles doesn't the private citizen weigh the pros and cons of the purchase? So why is it so unreasonable for the state to … read more do so? Of course this is the same agency that is going to destroy the current largest fishing lake in Wright County on belief you can't have ducks and fish in the same body of water. This is just one more reason for...

U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, one of two Republicans running for governor, sent out an e-release this morning challenging rival “Sarah Steelman’s newfound commitment to repeal the state’s renewable fuel directive…� Hulshof’s campaign contended that Steelman’s call to eliminate Missouri’s ethanol mandate could hike gas prices at a time when Missouri’s are the cheapest in the nation. (Many experts tie Missouri’s low price, in part, to our lower gas taxes.)

Ethanol Industry in DistressBusiness Adviser: 16 Ethanol Plants Filing Bankruptcy, Many More to Come By Todd Neeley DTN Staff Reporter 06/20/08 4:37:15 PM OMAHA (DTN) -- The U.S. ethanol industry is in trouble and can expect to see a rash of bankruptcies and dismantling of at least some production, according to a specialist who helps companies in distress. Alex Moglia, president of Moglia Advisors based in the Chicago area, said he knows of at least 16 ethanol companies that are filing for bankruptcy, and there will be at least two to three times that number filing within the next year....

The Guardian claims to have a confidential World Bank report which concludes that biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% — more than the IMF estimate of 20-30%, and far more than the US government’s claims that biofuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. The Guardian and the New York Times suggest the World Bank report is being held back to avoid conflict with the US, though bank chief Robert Zoellick has been vocal about the problem.The Guardian’s reporting on this is fairly shoddy, throwing around percentages without a time frame. Nevertheless, it is fairly clear...

UH-OH: Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis. Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian. The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body. . . . "Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. Perhaps they...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., July 1 (UPI) -- A Purdue economist says U.S. corn demand is exceeding supply and, combined with Midwestern flood losses, ethanol production might soon stall. Purdue University agricultural economist Chris Hurt says with higher corn prices, fewer ethanol producers can afford the feedstock. In turn, domestic livestock producers and foreign buyers are finding it more difficult to obtain grain. "Everybody is trying to evaluate how many bushels of corn we've lost because of weather-related damage, what the implications are for prices and who can pay these high prices," said Hurt. Using a similar 1993 Midwest flood as...

Getting the U.S.Postal Service to deliver mail efficiently is hard enough. Getting it to deliver it fuel-efficiently is apparently even harder. Bloomberg reports on the latest unintended consequence of the U.S. government’s obligation to outfit many of its vehicle fleets with cars and trucks that run on alternative fuels. That 1992 mandate almost never translates into really alternative-fuel vehicles, like ones that run on natural gas or even electricity. Instead, about 99% of government purchases are “flex-fuel” vehicles that can burn ethanol, but usually don’t.

WASHINGTON -- Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday. "No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent. About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon...

USDA to report acreage; analysts warn of $10 corn and possible supply crisisSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Recent Midwest flooding may have damaged millions of acres of corn crops, analysts expect the U.S. Department of Agriculture to say in its crop acreage report slated for release Monday. The loss of acreage could slash U.S. corn production and push the 2009 season's year-end stocks to the lowest level since just after World War II, analysts said. And the real damage is likely to be even worse than what Monday's 8:30 a.m. EDT report will show, as it's still too early to evaluate...

Des Moines, IA (AHN) - The marine dead zone resulting from the Midwest flooding is expected to expand to over 10,000 square miles, according to researchers from the Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. The water in the dead zone, approximately the size of Massachusetts, does not have sufficient oxygen at depth to support marine life. Since 1990, the zone, located off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, usually covers 6,000 square miles, varying according to the flow of the Mississippi River. Its low oxygen content is caused by the presence of large algae blooms which feeds...

Gas prices have us all willing to try alternative fuels. But would you try THIS alternative fuel in the latest cartoon from "Geeks On Caffeine?" Maybe... NOTE: The author of this cartoon requests that you visit his site and not copy the cartoon into this thread. THANKS!

Energy: If Obama wants energy independence through alternative fuels, why doesn't he back imported sugar-based ethanol? This old-style politician knows it isn't grown in the Midwest and Brazil has no electoral votes.Barack Obama says he represents change. He also criticizes John McCain for trying to drill our way to energy independence to add to the profits of Big Oil. But it's Obama who's playing politics by trying to plant our way to energy independence, buying votes with alternative fuel subsidies that benefit ethanol producers such as Archer Daniels Midland. ADM is based in Illinois, the second-largest corn-producing state. Not long...

The hot topic of the moment is energy: Where can we get it? Where can’t we get it? How can we bring the price down? Are there other options? So, of course presumptive presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has proposed some solutions, which he feels will alleviate the stress Americans are feeling, since their cost of living has increased so drastically due to energy costs. He proposes to tax the windfall profits that oil companies reap by providing consumers with the good they demand at the price the market has demanded. Aside from the obvious flaws in the plan...

While Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama insists drilling for more oil in off-limits federal lands won’t help gas prices come down, there’s at least one thing that would: lifting tariffs on imported ethanol. Problem is, the Illinois senator’s ties to the powerful U.S. ethanol lobby would prevent him from doing it. “I got to tell you – ethanol mafia is a powerful thing, Jim,” CNBC “Street Signs” host Erin Burnett said June 23, noting all the breaks the industry is getting from the U.S. government. “The ethanol emperors – or they are the mafia.” “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer...

Today’s New York Times carries a piece from Larry Rohter on Barack Obama’s many ties to the domestic ethanol racket, starting with campaign trips with former Sen. Tom Daschle: Mr. Daschle now serves on the boards of three ethanol companies and works at a Washington law firm where, according to his online job description, “he spends a substantial amount of time providing strategic and policy advice to clients in renewable energy.” The Obama-Daschle connection is much deeper than the article suggests. Indeed, the New York Times covered Daschle’s role in February. Daschle is in Obama’s Veepstakes. Many people in Obama’s...

When VeraSun Energy inaugurated a new ethanol processing plant last summer in Charles City, Iowa, some of that industry’s most prominent boosters showed up. Leaders of the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association, for instance, came to help cut the ribbon — and so did Senator Barack Obama. Skip to next paragraph Related To Ease Gas Prices, Obama Eyes Speculators (June 23, 2008) Times Topics: Barack Obama Blog The Caucus The latest political news from around the nation. Join the discussion. Election Guide More Politics News Then running far behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in name recognition...

The High Cost of Ethanol Subsidies By Dr. Tracy C. Miller An Indian government official recently criticized the Bush administration for blaming the growing middle classes of developing countries, such as India and China, for rising food prices. Although he may have misinterpreted the president’s remarks, his and other Indian critics’ responses are worth thinking about. They argue that the United States is the real culprit behind high food prices. Has the United States played an important role in contributing to rising food prices and, if so, what should be done to correct the problem? Growing world demand for food...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The flood waters of Iowa has just started to recede, but America is already feeling the impact of the flood on corn prices which hit $8 a bushel on Monday. After preliminary reports of poor harvest for July delivery came out, corn price went up to $6 a bushel in late May and closed $7.325 a bushel on Monday at the Chicago Board of Trade. Corn contracts for later months even exceeded $8 and then lowered a bit at $8. Iowa, one of the largest corn and soybean producer in the U.S. was flooded by as...

This started out as an attempt to create a light and humorous, Letterman-esque Top 10 list. But the items on the list, and the drain Americans are seeing in their pocketbooks because of Democrats' actions (sometimes inaction) are just too tragic for that. 10) ANWR  If Bill Clinton had signed into law the Republican Congress's 1995 bill to allow drilling of ANWR instead of vetoing it, ANWR could be producing a million barrels of (non-Opec) oil a day--5% of the nation's consumption. Although speaking in another context, even Democrat Senator Charles Schumer, no proponent of ANWR drilling, admits that "one million barrels...

SAO PAULO, Brazil — U.S. presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain supports ending subsidies for U.S. ethanol production and would back Brazil’s inclusion on an expanded United Nations Security Council, a Brazilian newspaper reported Sunday. In comments published by the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, McCain also said he would support Brazil’s addition to the Group of Eight industrialized nations and lauded the nation’s drive to find clean energy sources. The United States has “committed a series of errors in not adopting a sustainable energy policy,” McCain was quoted as saying. “One of those is the subsidies for ethanol from corn.”...

Large numbers of small to mid-size ethanol producers could shut down over the coming months after flooding across the US midwest caused irreparable damage to the year’s corn crop and pushed corn prices up sharply, says a report by Citigroup. At least five small to mid-size ethanol plants had shut down in recent days, said David Driscoll, Citigroup’s US food manufacturing analyst, in an equity research report. The widespread flooding, on a scale the region has seen only twice in the last 25 years, had forced down ethanol margins over the past 10 days, leaving small and mid-sized ethanol producers...

6/10/2008 8:47:00 AM Farm-Belt Voters Favor Eliminating Or Scaling Back Corn Ethanol Mandate Washington, DC - Most Americans - including those in the Farm Belt - want Congress to reduce or eliminate the corn ethanol mandate, according to a new poll released today by the National Center for Public Policy Research. The poll, published by the Public Opinion and Policy Center of the National Center for Public Policy Research, found that 41% of Americans want Congress to repeal the corn ethanol mandate entirely, while 35% want Congress to repeal the law it passed last December to double it. Just 6%...

Surge in Food Prices Expected Through 2012 Fuel costs, a weak dollar, global demand, and ethanol production push up food prices Posted June 12, 2008 A study released today by the former chief economist of ConAgra Foods forecasts record-breaking food inflation through 2012. The report, by Bill Lapp of Advanced Economic Solutions, estimates food inflation will rise by an average of 9 percent annually between 2008 and 2012. The rate is more than three times the average rate of food inflation in the United States in recent years. The price explosion is due to rising fuel costs, a weak dollar,...

President Reagan liked to say, “There are no easy answers, but there are simple ones.” This principle applies to America’s energy woes. Since the Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, the price of a gallon of gas has soared from $2.33 per gallon to over $4. Furthermore, over the next two decades, global demand for oil is expected to rise by 50 percent, meaning that further price escalation is almost inevitable. When confronted by these facts, the energy solution — as President Reagan would say — is simple. We need more energy! We should be increasing our production...

One hundred and fifty years ago sweet sorghum plants could be found swaying in the winds across southeastern United States. A U.S. patent officer brought the plant to the United States in 1853, according to the National Sweet Sorghum Producers and Processors Association. The plant was of interest as a substitute for sugarcane, but extracting dry sugar from the syrup proved to be too difficult. Sorghum production peaked in the 1880s and declined as it faced competition from sugarcane and sugar beets. Today, sweet sorghum is making its second debut as a versatile feedstock that can be used for food,...

After General Motors Corp. announced a strategic partnership with Coskata Inc. at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January, a typical business day for Wes Bolsen, Coskata’s vice president of business development, changed instantly. A flood of questions and concerns ensued—many from the ethanol industry—because Coskata was relatively unknown at that time. Plus, the company says it can produce ethanol from ag and forestry waste, and municipal solid waste—even tires—for less than $1 per gallon, far cheaper than other technologies. “Some people get angry when we talk about the $1-per-gallon production cost,” Bolsen tells EPM. “I don’t...

The development of technologies for the production of ethanol from biomass feedstocks such as wood dates back to the years leading into the first two world wars. Germany, in particular, being a land poor in petroleum began developing internal sources of fuel. Much of the country’s war machine, in fact, was powered by locally produced ethanol. The process technology of choice at this time was a biological approach consisting of concentrated or dilute acid hydrolysis to release simple sugars from wood followed by microbial fermentation of those sugars to ethanol. Although pioneered by the German war effort, the United States,...

First electricity rates jumped, now gasoline prices are galloping up, and the next sticker shock could be chicken prices, which are likely to go up at least 10 percent by the summer. That’s what James Perdue, chairman of the East Coast’s largest poultry company, told members of the Maryland Economic Development Association on Tuesday morning. The culprit is the rising price of corn, which is the main source of chicken feed. More than a third of all corn is going to produce ethanol, a fuel added to or used instead of gasoline. “We’ve got to feed those chickens,” Perdue said....

Always read to the end of the report; that’s where the good stuff is. Case in point an obscure little stat was released on Friday with the not-quite-tantalizing title “Agricultural Prices”. Tables and tables of words with numbers after them – soybeans, price per bushel – wheat, percentage change year over year – imported fruits…exported nuts…you get the idea. If you do the shopping for your family as I do (don’t snicker, I also chop down trees and bench 300), you’re probably not surprised to find out that agricultural prices rose quite rapidly in May. In fact the monthly price...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Corn futures fell Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would open up 24 million conservation acres for grazing, a new tool the government is using to ease costs for livestock raisers. Corn for July delivery fell as much as 2% to $5.85 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade before settling down 0.9% at $5.92 a bushel. Late Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would allow livestock producers to use some lands normally protected by the Conservation Reserve Program to hay or forage after the primary nesting season for grass-nesting...

Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal strongly editorializes against the Warner-Lieberman cap-and-trade plan that allegedly will solve our alleged problem with global warming — now called climate change. This plan is very similar to the one Sen. John McCain announced two weeks ago. The Journal argues that cap-and-trade “would impose the most extensive government reorganization of the American economy since the 1930s,” including a huge tax increase, higher prices across-the-board, and significant losses to economic growth in the decades ahead. But why do we need a planned economy for energy or anything else? Why not a fully deregulated free market for energy...

"In terms of renewable fuels, ethanol is the worst solution," Patzek says. "It has the highest energy cost with the least benefit."Ethanol is produced by fermenting renewable crops like corn or sugarcane. It may sound green, Patzek says, but that's because many scientists are not looking at the whole picture. According to his research, more fossil energy is used to produce ethanol than the energy contained within it. Patzek's ethanol critique began during a freshman seminar he taught in which he and his students calculated the energy balance of the biofuel. Taking into account the energy required to grow the...

Lower Ethanol Mileage Means Biofuel Users Buy More Gas By GAIL KINSEY HILL   Sherman Harris, owner of Snappy's Gas & Grocery in Vancouver, Wash., offers gas with no ethanol at his 76 station. (Photo by Doug Beghtel)     PORTLAND, Ore. — When ethanol began flowing into Oregon fuel tanks early this year, its costly little secret was scarcely mentioned: It packs one-third less explosive energy than gasoline and so reduces vehicle mileage on the road.Oregon requires a 10 percent blend with gasoline, known as E10, which cuts mileage by 3 percent, according to official estimates. That costs you...

Record prices drive secret underwater land-grab as old enemies capitalise on colonies. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports A fevered scramble for control of the world's seabed is going on - mostly in secret - at a little known office of the United Nations in New York. Bemused officials are watching with a mixture of awe and suspicion as Britain and France stake out legal claims to oil and mineral wealth as far as 350 nautical miles around each of their scattered islands across the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. It takes chutzpah. Not to be left out, Australia and New Zealand are...

German leaders are to propose a worldwide ban on oil trading by speculators, blaming the latest spike in crude prices on manipulation by hedge funds. It is the most drastic proposal to date amid escalating calls from Europe, the US and Asia for controls on market forces, underscoring the profound shift in the political climate since the credit crunch began. India has already suspended futures trading of five commodities. Car lights are seen streaking past an oil rig extracting petroleum Speculators are split, with some betting that oil will fall Uwe Beckmeyer, transport chief for Germany's Social Democrats, said his...

The state of Texas is now in official opposition to the federal ethanol mandate. Governor Rick Perry has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency for a one-year reprieve, and the reason is simple and increasingly familiar: Washington's ethanol obsession is hurting the state. We all know that corn farmers everywhere love ethanol. Don't tell that to Texas cattle ranchers. Because of the mandate to add this biofuel to gasoline, ranchers are being forced into bidding wars with ethanol plants for the grains they feed their cattle. They don't appreciate being hammered on price because of a subsidy to corn growers. Thus,...

A new South American union was born Friday as leaders of the region's 12 nations set out to create a continental parliament. Some see the new organization, Unasur, as a regional version of the European Union. Summit host Brazil wants it to help coordinate defense affairs across South America and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez calls it a counterweight to the United States. "The number one enemy of the union of the south is the empire of the United States," Chavez said, claiming that the U.S. is "trying to generate wars in South America" to "divide and conquer." Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio...

Wounded by media reports about corn-based fuel as a cause of soaring food costs and growing international hunger, ethanol producers are going on the defensive.The Wisconsin Ethanol Coalition is launching a statewide radio ad campaign to educate the public on the positive economic, environmental and practical benefits of ethanol use. "As gas prices reach record amounts, it is important for people to know that ethanol is a clean, renewable fuel that can help protect the environment and can reduce our dependency on foreign oil," said coalition spokesman Joshua Morby. The 30-second ad, which will begin running May 27, promotes the...

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. -- With fuel prices soaring, the U.S. military, the country's largest single consumer of oil, is turning into an alternative-fuels pioneer. In March, Air Force Capt. Rick Fournier flew a B-1 stealth bomber code-named Dark 33 across this sprawling proving ground, to confirm for the first time that a plane could break the sound barrier using synthetic jet fuel. A similar formula -- a blend of half-synthetic and half-conventional petroleum -- has been used in some South African commercial airliners for years, but never in a jet going so fast. [Major Expense] "The hope is...

ROME — In the past year, as the diversion of food crops like corn and palm to make biofuels has helped to drive up food prices, investors and politicians have begun promoting newer, so-called second-generation biofuels as the next wave of green energy. These, made from non-food crops like reeds and wild grasses, would offer fuel without the risk of taking food off the table, they said. But now, biologists and botanists are warning that they, too, may bring serious unintended consequences. Most of these newer crops are what scientists label invasive species — that is, weeds — that have...

What do the following recent events have in common? c The president of the United States has prostrated himself for the second time in five months before the king of Saudi Arabia, pleading for more oil. Despite George Bush's inducements — an array of advanced, offensive arms; the promise of nuclear technology with which the Saudis can expect (like the North Koreans, Iranians, Pakistanis, etc.) to acquire the ultimate weapons; and U.S. help securing Saudi Arabia's borders (something the president has declined to do at home) — the American plea was spurned. The contempt felt by the House of Saud...

They are countries so rich in oil and gas that they would never want for fuel to drive their booming economies and the lavish lifestyles of their rulers. Now, however, in a role reversal that makes selling sand to Saudi Arabia look like a sensible business transaction, the oil-rich Gulf states are planning to import coal. An acute shortage of natural gas has led to the city states of the United Arab Emirates seeking alternative fuels to keep the air cool, the lights on and the water running. Abu Dhabi is working with Suez, the French utility company, on a...

The president of the United States, supposedly the most powerful man on Earth, goes, hat in hand, to our “friends” in Saudi Arabia asking them to increase oil production in order to bring a measure of relief to rising energy prices. Our “friends” tell him no. The president is in no position to bargain, or even threaten. What’s he going to do? Cut off financial aid? The Saudis have more money than Allah. End any military or intelligence support that keeps Islamic radicals from making the House of Saud their next target? As hard as it might be to deal...

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...

Archer Daniels Midland Co. has kept the nameplate capacities of each of its plants a closely guarded secret for many years. After discovering its Cedar Rapids, Iowa, facility could produce as much as 820 MMgy, EPM wondered how such a large plant might impact the industry.