EPA’s primary role is to confirm what was already laid out by statute in terms of annual volumes of biofuels. That so called “renewable fuels schedule” established in 2005 and update in 2007 requires an ever increasing amount of biofuel to be blended into the nation’s fuel supply until the total hits 36 billion gallons in 2022. Those volumes, however, are completely unrealistic – a fact even EPA recognizes.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, fracking requires just 0.6 to 5.8 gallons of water per million Btu of energy produced. By comparison, “renewable” and “sustainable” corn-based ethanol requires 2,510 to 29,100 gallons per million Btu of usable energy – and biodiesel from soybeans consumes an astounding and unsustainable 14,000 to 75,000 gallons of water per million Btu!
The collapse of Solyndra solar a while ago focused much attention on the cost of so-called renewable energy. But according to James Rust of the Heartland Institute, subsidies for solar are just the tip of the expensive renewables iceberg . . .
Why do gasoline prices remain high even when oil prices drop? Well according to economists, one of the big reasons is Washington’s ethanol policy . . .
Even though not a gallon of cellulosic ethanol has been manufactured in the U.S., the EPA has continued to predict fantastical production volumes: approximately 5 million gallons in 2010, 6.6 million in 2011, 8.7 million in 2012 and a whopping 14 million gallons for 2013. These predictions established the volumes that refiners are required to use to blend into our gasoline—even though there is no cellulosic ethanol available, period!
The new robber barons are not content with only taxes and debt. They are using other people's hard-earned money to finance wind, solar, biofuel and other schemes that reward crony capitalist campaign contributors.while locking up centuries of vital energy resources.
Supporters of ethanol fuel claim that its widespread use has reduced gasoline prices in the U.S. But according to a study at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ethanol production has almost no impact on gas prices, and claims to the contrary omit important variables and rely on seriously flawed statistical data.
The Obama Administration’s anti-hydrocarbon ideology and “renewable” energy mythology continues to subsidize crony capitalists and the politicians they help keep in office – on the backs of American taxpayers, ratepayers and motorists. The latest chapter in the sorry ethanol saga is a perfect example.Bowing to pressure from ADM, Cargill, Growth Energy and other Big Ethanol lobbyists, Lisa Jackson’s Environmental Protection Agency has decided to allow ethanol manufacturers to register as suppliers of E15 gasoline. E15 contains 15% ethanol, rather than currently mandated 10% blends.The next lobbying effort will focus on getting E15 registered as a fuel in individual states and persuading [...]
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plans to allow a controversial blend of gasoline and ethanol to be sold in the U.S. could be headed for rough legal sledding.Federal appeals court judges recently heard a challenge to the Obama EPA’s approval of E15, a blend of 85 percent gasoline and 15 percent ethanol, to be sold in cars from the model year 2001 and newer. EPA claims it has the power under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to grant waivers allowing the sale of the new blend in certain vehicles. Currently, ethanol is not allowed to comprise more than 10 percent of [...]
If ever there were a case study in the absurdity of industrial policy, the federal mandates for cellulosic ethanol should be exhibit number one.
By Dave JudayFarm Futures magazine, in an article "Ethanol is Not to Blame for Egyptian Riots," notes “as the unrest in Egypt continues and spreads, several theories are surfacing as to why the riots are happening. Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association says don't blame American ethanol production.” Moreover, the article attributes to Tom Buis, the leader of another ethanol lobby group, Growth Energy, the notion that current Egyptian and Middle East unrest is a product of “40 foolish years of leaving our economy in the hands of OPEC, leaving our economic and national security in the [...]
What am I missing? There must be some aspect of our insane energy policies that I fail to appreciate. “We the People” just booted a boatload of spendthrifts out of Congress, after they helped engineer a $1.3 trillion deficit on America’s FY-2010 budget and balloon our cumulative national debt to $13.7 trillion.The “bipartisan White House deficit reduction panel” chimed in with a 50-page draft proposal, offering suggestions for $3.8 trillion in future budgetary savings. The proposal targets $100 billion in Defense Department weapons programs, healthcare benefits and overseas bases. It also proposes a $13-billion cutback in the federal workforce and lining out [...]