Big Oil Rips Off Ethanol Subsidies

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Big Oil is using Ethanol subsidies, corporate welfare, to fight Ethanol blending. The U.S. taxpayer is subsidizing big oils fight against Ethanol another good reason NOT to have corporate welfare for Ethanol.

For some industries, the prospect of $3.5 billion in federal subsidies now, and double that in three years, might be a powerful incentive. But not, apparently, for the oil industry, which is seeing crude oil prices soar to record highs. Despite collecting billions for blending small amounts of ethanol with gas, oil companies seem determined to fight the spread of E85, a fuel that is 85% ethanol and 15% gas. Congress has set a target of displacing 15% of projected annual gasoline use with alternative fuels by 2017. Right now, wider availability of E85 is the likeliest way to get there.

At the same time the industry is collecting a 51 cents-per-gallon federal subsidy for each gallon of ethanol it mixes with gas and sells as E10 (10% ethanol and 90% gas), it's working against the E85 blend with tactics both overt and stealthy. Efforts range from funding studies that bash the spread of ethanol for driving up the price of corn, and therefore some food, to not supporting E85 pumps at gas stations. The tactics infuriate a growing chorus of critics, from the usual suspects—pro-ethanol consumer groups—to the unexpected: the oil industry's oft-time ally, the auto industry.

The industry collects the subsidies, but didn't lobby for them—Congress created them to encourage a larger ethanol market. While oil reps say they aren't anti-ethanol, they are candid about disliking E85. Says Al Mannato of the American Petroleum Institute (API), the chief trade group for oil and natural-gas companies: "We think [ethanol] makes an effective additive to gasoline but that it doesn't work well as an alternative fuel. And we don't think the marketplace wants E85."

One prong in the oil industry's strategy is an anti-ethanol information campaign. In June the API released a study it commissioned from research firm Global Insight Inc. The report concludes that consumers will be "losers" in the runup to Congress' target of 35 billion gallons of biofuel by 2017 because, it forecasts, they'll pay $12 billion-plus a year more for food as corn prices rise to meet ethanol demand. The conclusions are far from universally accepted, but they have been picked up and promoted by anti-ethanol groups like the Coalition for Balanced Food & Fuel Policy, made up of the major beef, dairy, and poultry lobbies. Global Insight spokesman Jim Dorsey says the funding didn't influence the findings: "We don't have a dog in this hunt."

SEE:

Bio-Fuel B.S.

nd blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, agriculture, wheat, Canadian Wheat Board, farmers, Western-Canada, barley, wheat, Strahl, Government, Conservatives, Harper, corn USA, Bush, ADM, ethanol, biofuels, primates, organutan, , ADM, ArcherDaniels Midland, , bio-fuels, Canada Wheat Board, , capitalism, Cargill, , ecology, , Environment, , Green, green capitalism, Indonesia, Kyoto, palm oil, , big oil, sustainable, workers control

More Critics of Bio Fuels

The truth about bio-fuels is spreading.

Biofuels and the destruction of the rain forest

Murray Dobbin's Last Stage Of Denial: ethanol will save us!

A H/T to Driving the Porcelain Bus.

See

Bio Fuel

Bio-Fuels

ADM

Ethanol


ind blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, agriculture, wheat, Canadian Wheat Board, farmers, Western-Canada, barley, wheat, Strahl, Government, Conservatives, Harper, Elizabeth May, corn MexicoUSA, Bush, ADM, ethanol, biofuels,

Junk Science: Ethanol

So who benefits from the Conservatives push for Ethanol? Big Agri-business, the opponents of the Wheat Board, and the Blogging Tories and their pals run the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association.

You have seen the CRFA ads on TV complete with a nerdy goof promoting Harpers 5% promise. That we will have 5% ethanol for cars in Canada. The guy has to be a Blogging Tory.

Gee I have heard that 5% promise before,about the GST, but that still hasn't happened either.

But does ethanol help the environment? Well like the Conservative government's Clean Air Act, the answer is no.

Mowhak and Petro-Canada have been selling Ethanol for years in Canada as an additive, and we still have air pollution and greenhouse gas.

Ethanol auto emissions no greener than gasoline: study

The federal Conservative government committed $2 billion in incentives for ethanol, made from wheat and corn, and biodiesel in last week's budget.

But based on Ottawa's own research, critics say the investment is based more on myth than hard science.

Scientists at Environment Canada studied four vehicles of recent makes, testing their emissions in a range for driving conditions and temperatures.

"Looking at tailpipe emissions, from a greenhouse gas perspective, there really isn't much difference between ethanol and gasoline," said Greg Rideout, head of Environment Canada's toxic emissions research.

"Our results seemed to indicate that with today's vehicles, there's not a lot of difference at the tailpipe with greenhouse gas emissions."

The study found no statistical difference between the greenhouse gas emissions of regular unleaded fuel and 10 per cent ethanol blended fuel.

Although the study found a reduction in carbon monoxide, a pollutant that forms smog, emissions of some other gases, such as hydrocarbons, actually increased under certain conditions.

Bill Rees, an ecology professor at the University of British Columbia and longtime opponent of ethanol, has read the report and thinks Canadians need to know its conclusions.

"I must say, I'm a little surprised at that, because it seems to fly in the face of current policy initiatives," he said.

"People are being conned into believing in a product and paying for it through their tax monies when there's no justifiable benefit and indeed many negative costs."

See

Bio Fuel

Bio-Fuels

ADM

Ethanol


ind blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, agriculture, wheat, Canadian Wheat Board, farmers, Western-Canada, barley, wheat, Strahl, Government, Conservatives, Harper, Elizabeth May, corn MexicoUSA, Bush, ADM, ethanol, biofuels,