Posted on 10/20/2017 9:32:18 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Corny Capitalism: This is one campaign promise we wish President Trump would break. But alas, he just told his EPA to give up any thought of cutting back on the federal government's anti-consumer, anti-environment ethanol mandate. Sad.
The story begins in 2005, when President Bush approved the Renewable Fuel Standard program as part of an energy bill, which required oil refiners to blend in predetermined amounts of "biofuels" into their gasoline, starting at 4 billion gallons in 2006.
A revised version of the RFS, which Bush signed in 2007, expanding the program, requiring ethanol levels to climb steadily to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
The argument at the time was that forcing ethanol into the market — which is mainly derived from corn — would cut energy imports, improve energy security, reduce pollution, lower fuel costs and create jobs.
Even if those reasons were sufficient at the time to justify this heavy-handed government intervention in the energy market — and we don't think they were — today's energy picture makes the ethanol mandate entirely obsolete.
Thanks to the fracking revolution, the U.S. is now awash in domestic supplies of oil and natural gas. Oil prices have dropped and net imports are lower than they've been in more than 30 years. The U.S. could become a net exporter of oil within a decade.
So the idea that replacing some oil with ethanol is vital to national security or stable energy prices is a relic of a bygone era.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
This issue, for me, is second only to removing obamacare. The reason is partly principle. That is, it is such raw fascism for the sole purpose of forcing me to support an industry that it offends me every single time I arrive at a gas pump, which is every other day.
It destroys the credibility of the US as a free country. It is repugnant and destroys any faith I have in this country.
Yep. For me it is that bad.
When Ethanol was in full swing, corn prices went to $9.00 a bushel, today $2.80....Farmers are going belly up fast.
meh...
Corn farmers are doing just fine. This is a stronger year after three years of decline from record highs. Normal cycles like anything in agriculture.
Ethanol is the devil.
I have an old Jeep CJ that I drive every day, thirty miles each way, to work.
It’s carbureted, not fuel-injected, and designed to run on 1982 gas...
For the longest time I had had issues with it - Either in stop and go traffic or when I park it for fifteen or twenty minutes to shop for groceries. It runs rough or won’t start without a ton of effort.
I narrowed it down to flooding and blamed the float bowl, the pump, the filter...etc. And did a ton of work trying to sort it out...
I stumbled on the cause accidentally: Heat. The heat of the engine in slow traffic or when it was parked after driving it was causing the fuel to boil in the float bowl and overflow into the manifold - resulting in a flooding condition. Further research led me to understand that Ethanol additives cause the boiling point of gasoline to lower - and this can result in the problems I was experiencing.
Luckily there’s a gas station about a half mile from my house that sells non-Ethanol gas. And after running out the old stuff, it no longer floods - ever. I can run all day in stop-and-go traffic in the worst summer heat Georgia has to offer - no problems. Park and come back out twenty minutes after driving it for an hour - starts right up.
Now - why are gas stations around here starting to offer non-Ethanol gas? Because landscaping, construction, tree removal, and other companies are demanding it. Ethanol additives eat rubber - which means their equipment fails faster.
Ethanol isn’t a viable product - as evidenced by the fact that it required law and regulation to create a market for it...
I remember differently, like $7/bu. GOOD TIMES!
But anyway when does corn go back up?
Wrong, cost $450 and acre to plant and harvest. 200 bushel an acre is good. 200x $3.00 = $600. Oh and the rent per acre is 3-400....do the math.
It's something he and Pruitt will discuss. Decisions do not have to come immediately.
The ones I know just revert back to table crops.
Multiply the ethanol mandate times 1000 other crony-capitalist political insider skimming operations, and you will have sense of the scale of the problem.
$3 a bushel? That's 56 pounds. An Ear of yellow corn in a CA grocery store cost more than a buck. Someone is making a killing. That math doesn't add up.
Ok, I don't farm so if I missed something, please explain and don't just beat me up.
Average cash rent in Iowa is about $220. Not all corn acres are rented.
This started in the Iowa primary. Trump was behind and compromised his position on ethanol to get the endorsement from Gov. Brandstant (sp). His son is somehow connected to the ethanol gravy train.
It’s BAD POLICY to subsidize the ethanol industry. Crony capitalism at its worst.
Please Mr. President, reconsider.
This issue is the main reason I was a huge Cruz supporter. He was the only viable candidate that came close to my position on this issue.
He can be on board with every source with my blessing.
As long as subsidies aren’t involved.
Everyone of them is subsidized and likely it will always be.
Sweet corn is completely different then field corn. Field corn is for livestock and making food. Unlike sweet corn.
If not owned outright, they are paying the bank. In 2011 a acre was being sold for 8-10,000 an acre.
Thanks for your kind explanation. My initial reaction was obviously not well founded. :)
Sunoco Gas Stations have pure gas available off to the side of many gas stations but not with the Commercial pumps out front.
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