EPA Set to Give Ethanol a Big Boost?
by Capitol ConfidentialIn the midst of a drive by Washington’s powerful ethanol lobby to expand what critics often deride as an artificially created, and government aided and promoted market for “fuel made from food,” the top administrator from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Wednesday testified before the Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, telling lawmakers the agency will make a final determination late summer on allowing higher levels of ethanol to be blended into gasoline.
The ethanol industry is currently petitioning the EPA for a waiver to increase ethanol blends in gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent, in order to create a larger market–and artificial demand–for the fuel source.
Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency’s decision awaits completion of Department of Energy (DOE) tests on ethanol—namely, how higher ethanol blends might adversely affect vehicle engines, a long-running concern of automakers and the marine leisure industry, among others—which she expects to receive by May. “We expect that once we get that additional data, and it will be publicly available, the EPA will be in a position to move toward a final decision on the waiver, late summer in the time period,” Jackson said in response to a line of questioning by ethanol booster Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska.
Co-chair of Ethanol Across America, Nelson recently launched a campaign to browbeat the EPA by offering an amendment to an EPA appropriations bill demanding higher ethanol blends. The amendment failed, but sources say that Nelson and fellow proponents of ethanol remain committed to expanding use of the fuel. This is despite frequent criticisms of ethanol from across the philosophical spectrum: Fiscal conservatives tend to regard ethanol as a boondoggle tying together the worst practices of pork-barreling and interference with the free market; progressives and some social conservatives have criticized ethanol as environmentally unfriendly, with some also pointing to the impact that using food to produce fuel has on global food prices, and thus hunger and malnutrition in poorer countries.
Once hailed as the “fuel of the future” by Henry Ford in the 1920s, ethanol opponents say that the market has roundly rejected ethanol as a viable fuel source, and emphasize that it is not a new product. Fewer than 2 percent of all refueling stations in the United States currently offer ethanol, despite extensive government subsidies aimed at its production (a 1998 report by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) observed that “the fuel-ethanol industry was created by a mix of Federal and State subsidies, loan programs and incentives. It continues to depend on Federal and State subsidies”).
One critic contacted by Capitol Confidential says that if EPA grants the waiver, it will constitute little more than further de facto federal welfare for the ethanol industry. Another critic notes that it could also result in a problem for the administration if, as some fear, the warranties of hundreds of millions of cars were voided.
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Ok folks,
"In the midst of a drive by Washington’s powerful ethanol lobby to expand what critics often deride as an artificially created, and government aided and promoted market for “fuel made from food,” the top administrator from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Wednesday testified before the Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, telling lawmakers the agency will make a final determination late summer on allowing higher levels of ethanol to be blended into gasoline."
I'll go way out on a limb and put my neck on the chopping block, thereby alienating all my friends in the business world, and agricultural industry. Ethanol is a SCAM, and everyone knows it. it is corporate welfare, and graft. Just the fact that Ben nelson is at the table should tell you that. Stop and think just how much corn Nebraska grows. Do you all smell another "Cornhusker Kickback"? Brace yourselves. It is a scam, and a joke. Everyone on the inside knows it.
Not only that, CL, but costs for basic food staples in countries that IMPORT food from the USA has been going UP for years. Now there is a major situation across the world where the poor can't even afford the poorest of foods. Corn, rice, etc have all risen significantly in price.
So, the left's solution is to waste more food on fuel? Gee, sounds like Maggie Sanger's bunch alright.
Just friggin great. I have already lost gas mileage and performance because of this crap being put in the fuel. Every day another load of crap from the idiots in DC. I am getting ready to go there and kick ass. How much can we take before we blow? There would be people from DC laying in the streets already if they tried this on the WW11 generation.
Corn futures thru the roof? Popcorn $10 a microwave bag? Salsa futures down?
Oh shyte I have to go out and stock up on my beloved Bourbon…..pronto!
Four words:
Drill Here. Drill Now!
Cowboy you are right on all counts, all it does is drive up both the cost of fuel and the cost of corn.
There is no proven efficiency at all.
Ethanol is a scam. First, alcohol (ethanol) is extremely hard in internal engine components. It wears your motor out quicker, costing more in repairs over the life of the vehicle, even if it is a 'flex-fuel' vehicle. Flex-fuel only denotes the fact it can run on E85. That's 85% ethanol to 15% gas, for you folks who aren't in the know…
Second, and most importantly, the Stoichometric ratio for gasoline is 14.7:1. Meaning you need at least 1 part fuel to 14.7 parts air to create combustion. Ethanol sits at a lowly 9:1. Meaning you need 1 part ethanol to 9 parts air.
Simply put, ethanol is more than 50% less efficient as a combustible fuel than gasoline is, requiring far more to travel the same distance.
Ethanol has been a SCAM from the get go.
Drives up price of corn, artificially thanks to gov't meddling. How economically stupid can people be?
This in turn drives up cost of livestock, etc. as well as ANY product that uses corn, which is a LOT of products and industries.
AND, the evidence is that Ethanol DECREASES your mpg. So you use MORE gas!
Freakonomics from and for the corrupt.
Hucksters, cheats and liars. Ethanol is a scam on so many levels. And the EPA is just one more political arm of this subversive administration.
For another example of governmental subversion, check out this story on the "green jobs" scam from PJ Media:
BREAKING: Released Emails Show Wind Lobby, Soros Group Helped with White House PR (PJM Exclusive)
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/breaking-released-em...
Ben Nelson, the Nebraska Kernel is at it again. The 'ethanol' lobby will surely keep his spirits up.
Are they nuts? There are a lot of problems and way to expensive.
Yes, setting the stage for a "Tortilla Revolution".
Waste of perfectly decent booze if you ask me.
Big Foot, Elvis lives, moonlanding faked, President Ron Paul and yes…….. every car powered by ethanol!
Food for fuel sounds like a U.N. program, and we know how they end up.
or a protest outside of the "rice-capades"
It sure seems pretty obvious that they can't afford to operate without the tax credit.
More ethanol to evaporate into thin air, our loving/nurturing government at work again!! I personally avoid any pumps labeled "May contain 10% ethanol", fuel mileage decreases with purchases from them!!! I guess it fits with the times we live in, huge percentages of the paycheck also evaporate, before the envelope is ever opened!!! One thing about it though, we have a BIG FAT GOVERNMENT, to leech off of every aspect of life, it is where the evaporated wealth ascends to!!!
I used ti be able to cite this chapter and verse. I no longer can, but perhaps a good researcher here can find it. Ethanol goes back to the EPA. Remember years back, when all the gas stations had to replace their tanks with new ones, because fuel had contaminated soils? At that time it was legislated that ethanol had to be blended with gasoline from that point further, as it enabled a quicker cleanup, due to the molecular structure, and chain.
Ethanol, in it's simplest form, is nothing more than grain alcohol. Every drunk knows what that is.
It takes a lot of oil and water to produce a gallon of ethanol. It's a bad idea.
I am about to install a third fuel pump in my car. I am not alone in shelling out almost a grand tp replace that little SOB. And, speaking od SOB's the EPA and Senator Nelson are working hard to spend our tax money on a failed ethanol program that the EPA admits causes vehicles to lose fuel economy.
Also on the Brazilian model, they are now importing gasoline and they are having difficulty with their ethanol as the price of sugar has increased. Commodity price fluctuations demand that we drill here, now, and everywhere we have found reserves but first, the only way to achieve this is a change in government culture.
Not only is ethanol a scam, the only way it is feasible, is through the government subsidies, and tax breaks provided by the government for investors. The Tax Code at its finest…………
Not sure it is true but I have repeatedly heard that Ethanol produce more CO2 then gas
http://lubinlib.typepad.com/index/2008/02/does-co...
http://www.intota.com/docs/ethanol-pollution.asp
Not sure it is true but I have repeatedly heard that Ethanol produce more CO2 then gas
http://lubinlib.typepad.com/index/2008/02/does-co...
http://www.intota.com/docs/ethanol-pollution.asp
I'm starting to think these people in Washington are smoking some really bad stuff. Every attempt to do anything reminds me of an Laurel and Hardy episode acting like nit wits.
Ohhhhh that's bad man……….
Thanks John, a bit of reading but worth it. Obama is a puppet and stuff like this will divulge the puppeteers!
Actually, every car in the country is running on a 10% ethanol blend. There is no more pure gasoline anymore.
Based on the link above, I can't wait for Chris Horner to blow this wide open. Barry Soetoro is in bed with the unions AND the lobbyists and is shaping US domestic policy on how it benefits his big money donors. He needs to be investigated as he does not have the best interests of the country at heart. I've never seen such political thuggery at work since the days of Clinton and compared to Obamao, the Slickster looks like an amateur.
Remember Mark, it's not the crime that gets you, it's the cover up.
Damn, the gas prices are already $2.60 here and in some states over $3. If things aren't bad enough……
Well, Xavier, tell me this. Ethanol is produced mainly by corn. Yes there are studies to try using algae, etc, but the majority comes from corn. We NEED food to survive. Can you eat oil? Gas? Plastic? Diesel? No? well, maybe oil has it's place. So does corn. On the dinner table. You want to use ethanol to power cars, fine. I'll send you a 55 gal drum of crude, as food stores for the winter. Eat that.
Yeah, I have a lot of faith in Chris Horner. We should all stay tuned.
i'll drink to that
Also, remember how CA used to blend MPTE with fuel, supposedly for better emissions? MPTE was found to cause horrific damage to fish and water-borne vegetation. They used it for years, and due to their snobbery, caused more harm than good.
The road to hell is paved with what again?
sorta like amtrak
i'll drink to that too
i'm not gonna drink to that
Have a round on me too.
One of these days I will get my hands on Pappy Van Winkle 20yr old, the 23yr old is out of my price range!
Hmmm Ask the starving people in Africa whose plight has worsened do to the rise cost of corn.
Here is a quote from 2008 but I bet things are not any better
The United States, often called the breadbasket of the world, finds its grain silos as empty as the 1970’s, when the Soviet Union bought most of its reserves.
So much for letting science back into the White House.
Hmmm Ask the starving people in Africa whose plight has worsened do to the rising cost of corn.
Here is a quote from 2008 but I bet things are not any better
The United States, often called the breadbasket of the world, finds its grain silos as empty as the 1970’s, when the Soviet Union bought most of its reserves.
My sentiments exactly.
Yeah and i still see suckers buying DryGas, go figure.
A) We have not hit peak oil in case you can't read
B) We can reduce importation of oil, but the Obama administration and various state government are blocking both existing leases and preventing new ones on known oil reserves.
C) The Obama administration placed a moratorium on oil shale research. They've lifted it slightly, but not enough.
D) Ethanol production is driving up the cost of food–not luxury food, but basic food.
E) I have no problem of removing any remaining federal subsidies on oil IF the federal government also gets out of the way of production, especially in the west.
…………………….If we could just burn bovine fecal matter in our autos DC would provide an unlimited renewable fuel source!
Pretty short of that 100% target that would "teach them Aaaaarabs a thing or two" set in the 70's.
Funny…….. I sense the presence of Paul Ehrlich in the room.
never been a big drinker(except during my navy days)
i'm more of a Jim Beam type and couldnt tell you
who Pappy Van Winkle is but i will keep my eyes open
and if i ever have the occasion, I will try a shot
For every percentage increase in ethanol, my wife's car drops mileage by the same amount. Not only do we need to buy proportionately more gasohol, we pay more per gallon for the privilege. Why should I be transferring my wealth to already rich corn farmers?
That or crack addicts chasing another rock
Thankfully, I think your neck is safe.
Do they not know the cost of getting the corn to market for this ?? Do they not realize the globla impact and the energy it’s costing ????
Drill baby drill
MY Navy days-I could only afford Old Crowe & Ten High…I needed quantity not quality.
hey Cowboy
You are wrong on all counts! It is not SCAM in any way. IT IS A SOURCE of ENERGY. However, It is a very variable and totally unreliable source of energy just like wind or photovoltaics! Any person, government, or industry who are reliant on variable sources are at risk due to the 'variable' cost $$$$. Right now any of these sources are far more expensive than "Dependable – COAL! CRUDE! METHANE!" which will become increasingly expensive and will almost disappear and be replaced with (Nuclear?) in this century!
Ever hear of the 'dust bowl'? Anyone wanna guess what the output of ethanol due to wheat or corn was during that era? We are probably arguing what the Myan civizalization argued!
Yeah, AGW! (smile).
Vote.
Yeah lets use our food supply for fuel……..get ready for food prices to skyrocket AGAIN. this is how government causes inflation. then again they don't count food or fuel in the CPI, soooo……….
Let's use food as a fuel. That way we can add a few steps to energy production ( WITH LOTS OF MORE STEPS FOR TAXES) and buy off a few more states.
Another concern, it could contribute to higher whiskey prices.
With all due respect, I beg to differ with you. It is a scam.
I might not know much about pretty girls or politics, but I do know about the energy industry and the agricultural industry. I even invested in a couple large ethanol deals going back four, and three years ago respectively. I knew it was a scam going into it. The only reason I did, was the way I was structured in my tax base, and it was advantageous to me. The Tax Code was the only reason the deal worked.
Ethanol doubled, then tripled the price of corn. Farmers had a windfall, and then the price of corn cratered and everyone went broke. Supply and demand. I follow the ag markets, and the oil markets on an hourly basis, dependent upon where I am postured throughout the day.
sermon contd:
I understand hydrocarbons; I understand methane, and crude. I have drilled, owned and operated close to 1,000 wells over the course of 35 years, all for my own account. i have owned and operated coal mines, both deep, strip, and mountaintop removal.
Don't lecture me about nuclear. That is an unviable resource. For every bbl of crude and mcf of gas taken off the market, that would have to be replaced with uranium, thereby creating an uranium shortage. You will replace one commodity, with another. What is more expensive to mine, coal, or uranium………………….?
Right now, for anyone interested, "The World Without Oil" is beginning at Nat Geo Channel. A good show.
Low octane inefficient fuel is all it is. Why are we still kicking this horse(he's dead)? We have tons of resources in this country. We have oil (about 200 years worth) lots of coal, nuclear power, natural gas and of course wood. By trying to use crops for fuel all were gonna accomplish is to drive up the cost of food.
I would love to see someone figure out how to harness hydrogen fuel SAFELY. I Know right now thats the main concern with it as it should be (the storage tanks/gas tanks). But if it wont work were in no rush we have plenty of resources. I'm sure in the next 200 years someone will figure something out.
Xavier,
every dollar of subsidy for ethanol is borrowed from China or Japan and will have to be paid back by our children or grandchildren.
Additionally, ethanol is a hydrophilic or water loving hydrocarbon that will absorb water and at each stage of its distribution will become more and more of a steam generating fuel that will scour and evaporate the metal of the cylinder walls and heads, until it destroys the engines that uses it as a fuel.
"The debate is over ethanol is a scam. Everyone who is smart knows this. But you are just too stupid to understand." It sounds a lot like the argument for global warming. Go read a book. I suggest Alcohol Can be a Gas by Dave Blume.
The only problem with "biofuel" is that there is no "petrofood."
Food is of higher value to humans than fuel – you can't really drive your car to the market without fuel, but without food you won't live too long. Why are we paying more taxes to turn what should feed humans in to what could be replaced with petrochemicals? Because farmers like it (higher market prices for crops), and there is a lie told that it is better for the environment. Perhaps if you compare it to nuclear waste…
Subsidized food burning is a bad idea. Ya think?
We have a local ethanol plant that produces 100 million gallons per year. The blender credit alone for this plant is $45 million per year. The plant employs about 25 people. You do the math.
You are SOOOOOOOOOOO right!!!!!
I have read it, and have followed his work. He is of the "Mother Earth News" touchey-feeley subsistence agriculture genre.
You have it figured out. Another "Inconvienent Truth".
Ethanol has damaged/destroyed hundreds of thousands of engines. I hate lawsuits but it’s time for a monster class action suit against these idiots. You like water in your fuel tank, ethanol automatically puts it there and on vented fuel systems it draws more moisture.
Would you trade an extra $5 per bottle of burbon to never need oil from of the Middle East? I would. E-40 (40% ethanol) would do it.
Further, here is your boy Blumes bio.
As I said, Mother Earth News, Non-Profits,an idealist, blah, blah, blah. He'd be better suited being a CONsultant for Algore. He has no credability in my world, although I'm sure his peer reviewed science is settled.
If you'd study Blumes bio, he is one of those Gaia worshipping goobers. A tenured academic, an idealist, telling the world how to live. Not to bash you, or your man Blume, but he is an idealist. There is nothing he could tell me that would be of any interest, or real world relevance, although I wholeheartedly believe he could tell me where to get the best dope in Northern California……..
We sure could use cornpone's input on this one. I don't know, but you'd think we could solve any and all 'energy problems' by finding some way to compress and store the violent expulsions of flatus so common to Democraps.
B.O. and Congress are already choking us to death with their stench while LiberalLand drowns in fuel.
and I like his/her use of "petrofood".
I don't reckon I've ever heard that. Clever!
beg to differ CL, commodity traders might have had a windfall, but in 07 most grain producers
had basis & cash contracts on 70 to 80%of their production before the price increases. In 08
all our suppliers inflated their prices exponentially so no windfall in 08 either. In fact 08 was
probably the worst year we've had in 30 years. I will however concede that ethanol is a scam,
but it makes those cornbelt Yankee Senators & Representatives feel so good to help their con-
stituents, of course since Cargill & ADM have bought up most of the bankrupt ethanol plants
around here these Congressmen are really helping big bidness. The gubmit gave out low
interest loans to encourage assorted capitalist companies to build these plants, the price of
crude went down, the ethanol producers could not compete at the lower price, went bankrupt,
Carigll, ADM, etc are the ultimate winners. Those new ventures into the production of ethanol
were NOT too big to fail. This is about the third round of this ethanol production scam that I've
witnessed.
Ethanol replaces crude oil imports from the Middle East.
Has anyone heard of the Big Oil scam? Ya you bubba. Ya see, they take your taxes and use the US military to defend the Persian Gulf, to make sure that cheap crude oil hits our shores so we have no incentive to drill our own oil. Ya see, bubba, Alaska gave us 2 million barrels per day, ten years ago, and now it's only 700 thousand barrels of oil per day. Who is now making up the 1.3 million barrel difference? Well our good ole friends from Saudi Arabia! So instead of drilling and killing caribou we are marching along the middle east and killing our brothers to give you that good ole cheap oil you love so much. So Bubbas, let's just give the ole finger to the US corn farmer and rally behind Saudi Arabia, lets pave their streets with gold. Our treasury and economy should go overseas and not stay here. Well, that's what you Bubbas are telling everyone, right? Corn ethanol bad, crude oil good! We only need 20 million barrels a day of crude to keep the economy going. Right now our corn farmers are only giving us 700 thousand barrels per day and they just really got started three years ago. But hell, lets make farmers stop just like the enviros made the US crude oil industry stop drilling in ANWR. Hell, we always have our friends in Saudi Arabia, to rely on, right boys?
viv,………….Feed corn is not consumed by humans, unless run through a steak factory first. Feed
corn is used for ethanol production, however food corn is too expensive for feeding to animals or
making ethanol.
HA! Oops…I should have read yours before posting similar. You beat me to it.
)
"Petrofood" That is kind of what we have in this country. Natural gas fertilizer, Natural gas derived pesticides. Diesel tractors. Diesel delivery trucks. Shipping food from one side of the world to the other. Food in this country does not exist except for petrochemicals. Then everyone blames food price increases on ethanol when fuel prices doubled.
George,………..back in the 70's when the gubmit wanted small scale ethanol production, they
gave out low interest loans to farmers to build on farm small scale plants. The only farmer to
build a plant around my small town was the biggest drunk in the county. Lives about a mile
from me. Traffic picked up approximately 500% around my place, he had lots of visitors.
Dan, I am a corn farmer & we are not rich. We just have a middle class living like most responsible
somewhat educated US citizens. We do however take more risk, than average folks who work for
a living. We bet about 50% of our net worth every year for the privilege of being our own boss. Would
you take that deal, remember if Ma Nature doesn't smile on you, or you make a mistake in judgement
you lose half of your worldly goods. Have you ever heard the expression 'bet the farm'? Well we do it
every year.
I liked his idea that gasoline could use some competition. I tend to agree with Blume that competition is essential in free markets. The sooner American's have an actual choice of auto fuels the better. I wish American's understood this and demanded all cars be flexfueled. Maybe someday even compatable with methanol and butanol.
You rang???? One caution,….. if I may, WWU, please don't use my name in the same sentence as
Democraps.
Hey, who's Bubba?
Ethanol will never replace oil and farmers can grow anything but they shouldn't be govt subsidized. Yes, we need to drill here and we should as we're floating on a large percentage of the world's crude. As for our Arab 'friends' ….they're everyone's problem and there's no 'solving' it. Deal with it already.
HAHA!! I'll watch that from now on.
Ethanol has ruined our tillers, lawn mowers, generators and chainsaws. None of the manufactures of these have designed their product to handle ethanol.
Three of the manufacturers we contacted told us to never use gasoline with ethanol. It will void the warranty!
1. Drill here, drill now, drill often
2. Corn used for ethanol production is not suitable for human consumption, it is feed corn, & as I said
__earlier is not suitable for human consumption, until it has been run through a bovine 'steak factory'. It
__is edible, however it is not palatable as it has been specifically bred to be more efficiently digested
__ by hogs cattle. I wouldn't think 3rd world countries would import feed corn for human consumption.
3. Food grade corn is genetically different than feed corn, requires different cultural practices, maintains
__much higher & less fluctuating price levels, basically because of lower yield possibilities & different
__ harvest requirements.
4. There is not enough corn in your box of corn flakes to cause it to rise in price, even if corn prices tripled
__on the CBOT. Blame the manufacturers when food prices go up, farmers don't benefit from Kellogs
__ price gouging. There is more money in the packaging & transportation than in the grain in your corn
__chex.
5. Ethanol production was a concession to the 'greenies' that Congressmen from primarily conservative
__States & Districts were willing to make, only because of their perception that it would help constituents.
__Low interest loans were made to venture capital groups to build multi-million dollar ethanol manufac-
__turing facilities, about 50% of which were barely finished with construction before crude prices dropped.
__Many of these facilities have sat idle for a year or more. The big grain exporters, monopolies in my op-
__inion, have 'bailed out' many of these new facilities, paying only pennies on the dollar to purchase their
__plants. The US gov may as well pay the money directly to Cargill, ADM & whoever bought Con Agri's
__grain interests. The big three went to Congress about 20 years ago & convinced them they needed
__'export subsidies', so rather than subsidizing the farmer, the gov should pay them directly. You know,
__they would be sure to give the US grain producer his share. Although we do still receive some direct
__subsidy, most of what you folks hear as regards USDA budget is food assistance (food stamps),
__school lunch program, etc.
The problem with the EPA is most everyone that works there are environmental zealots. Or in layman's terms Enviro-Wackos.
Ethanol is really a horrible fuel. I used to own a flex-fuel vehicle. I used E85 in it exactly one time. The performance was so bad, and the fuel economy so bad that there was no way I would ever use it again.
Now the EPA wants to mandate E20 or such in vehicles that should be running on E10 or less. My old 1998 S-10 pickup's manual says do not use ethanol but you can't buy anything but E10 in MN. Can we sue the EPA when seals and gaskets fail?
But both take up crop land. Feed corn means no food corn.
Not to mention Senator Grassley (R) of Iowa. He is big on Ethanol getting subsidies for it.
I'm curious Pablo, tell me, which pesticides are derived from natural gas?
Environmental zealots have actually wormed their way into every Dept in the US Gov. USDA has their
share. Fish & Wildlife Service is lousey with them. Forrest Service too. They're everywhere, they're
everywhere! As farmers we have our own problems with them. In some farm production publications
I have recently seen articles about new rules regarding standing rain water. If you have a small dip
in a field, most of them around here were actually 'buffalo wallows' when the Texas Panhandle was a
'tall grass prairie', the Farm Service Agency will inspect to check for endangered bugs or amphibians.
Since our annual rainfall is less than 20 inches, it may be awhile before they can follow through.
This is corporate welfare for Nebraska farmers, pushed through by the Ag lobby in DC. We could buy unlimited ethanol from Brazil, a more effecient producer than Nebraska. Brazil is on the equator w/ higher levels of sunshine. They grow sugar cane, not corn, & produce more energy/ acre by far. When you fly over Nebraska and see those circular center pivots, well they use lots of water. Farmers in Nebraska & Texas are mining the gound water to produce subsidized corn that the market does not need. Farmers like it because they can buy a new Chevy Silverado every 2 years and send their kids to college to do something else than farm. Tax payers suffer. Consumers suffer, especially those on the bubble of not having enough to eat.
Not in my area mndasher, food corn is an expensive specialty crop that is not feasible. In the
Tx Panhandle we'll go to crops like milo (grain sorghum), wheat,or cotton, with cotton being the
most likely. We gave up cotton production 3 or 4 years ago, after most of the fabric mills moved
from the South, to Mexico, but the final straw was China. Pakistan & India grow quite a lot of cotton,
so with their slave labor costs, we have a hard time competing.
BTW, no feed corn means 'grass fed' beef,……..ever had one of those grass fed Rib-eyes with the
grayish, tanish color & the stringy chewy texture. MMMmmm No thx, I'll go cornfed all the way.
Mexico buys a ton of feed corn from the USA. They feed it to cattle and pigs, but it also goes into human stomachs as well. They use it in tortillas which is an absolute staple of the Mexican diet. The whole world uses corn oil for cooking and corn is used in a bunch of processed foods. You are right in that there are many varieties of corn. Feed corn is used for animal feed, but also for :"masa" used in tortillas. Field corn is what we think of for fresh corn on the cob. This need to be tender and juicy and is harvested younger. There are new vatieties used for ethanol which I am not that familiar with. Feed corn price increases mean more espensive meat. Subsidy to the farmer affects food prices to the poor. Corporate welfare to farmer drives up prices of food for poor in USA and around the world.
Corn is also made into sugar which goes into coca-cola, baked goods, and many other products. In Mexico Coca-cola is made from sugar cane sugar and tastes a little different. To coca-cola afficianados it tastes a lot different.
Feed corn, when processed for ethanol, strips the starch from the corn, that's where the ethanol comes from.The corn is then passed on to the feed lots for cattle consumption and is a LOWER grade of feed. now the feed lot has to then supplement the feed, meaning a HIGHER cost of beef to the consumer. and BTW it takes 26 gallons of water to process 1 gal of ethanol.
I agree cornpone, Give me corn fed beef, not that nasty ass grass fed.
So ethanol is a scam and a boondoggle. What then is oil? Lets see: A strategic petroleum reserve of about 700 million barrels at $80/brl.=$56 Billion of tax payer money tied up. Ethanol has no strategic ethanol reserve. And then there is the oil depletion allowance that shields oil income from taxation. Ethanol/corn growers have no soil depletion allowance to shield income from taxation. And don't forget Wars for Oil Security that have cost trillions of dollars in the last 20 years and thousands of American deaths and injuries. There have been no wars for ethanol security. On top of all that oil receives other tax benefits in the form of drilling incentives. A tax benefit is the same thing as a subsidy.And what does ethanol get? A piddly $6 Billion/45cent blenders credit which is also in effect paid to oil companies when they blend it with gasoline.The reduced mileage from ethanol use is partially offset by a lower price. Ethanol helps reduce oil imports that help fund terrorists and weaken our economic situation. In the face of the advent of Peak Oil what do ethanol opponents propose? They have no solutions because they don't even understand the problem. If fact they haven't got a clue.
The company in my area, owned by Mexican interests, from Mexico, buys food grade corn to
process for masa, corn chip products & tortillias. It is NOT fresh corn, & is not harvested before
maturity as you seem to believe. Sweet corn is grown to be consumed as fresh corn on the cob,
NOT field corn. Field corn is a slang or common term for feed corn. It can be consumed when
in the 'milk' stage of growth, however is not nearly as tasty as sweet corn, which has been select-
ively bred for its exceptional flavor. When you buy corn on the cob in the grocery store it is sweet
corn, as is the frozen corn sold off the cob.
Subsidies to farmers mean they can continue to raise the crop & sell it at a lower price than the
market would dictate otherwise. Subsidies are beneficial to poor folks who must choose to spend
their food budget wisely. Consumers in the US spend less percentage of their income on food than
anywhere in the world, at this time. The Government philosophy has long been, a full belly makes
for a contented populace.
"Corporate welfare to farmer drives up prices of food for poor in USA and around the world". This
statement is beyond comprehension. 'Corporate welfare' is a buz-word created to demonize family
farmers whose operations have reached sufficient size to benefit from 'incorporating' their business
in an effort to take advantage of tax structuring & other business incentives that are available to all
business in the USA. The big 3 grain companies, Cargill, ADM & ConAgri, that function in the US, as monopolies in my opinion, receive export subsidies far above what US grain producers get.
My car takes ethanol and regular gas. I have tried ethanol many times. I gave it a chance, and I will never use it again. When you fill up on ethanol, your car drives less miles on it. That makes up for the money you "save" because you don't get as many miles per gallon. And the other reason I don't like it, is the pick up. I have big truck and when I fill up on ethanol, and try to accelerate my speed, it goes really slow. Gas is good.
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