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发帖数: 29846 | 1 by Jed Babbin
Your car will get better mileage if the price of your Thanksgiving turkey
goes down, and my chain saw will start more easily. It all comes down to the
price of corn, and how much ethanol the federal "Renewable Fuel Standard"
mandates to be blended in gasoline.
The price of corn is going to go up sharply in the coming months because the
worst drought in fifty years has brought disaster to corn farmers.
According to the EPA, which has control of the Renewable Fuels Standard
created by the 2005 Energy Policy Act, America grew about ten billion
bushels of corn in 2000, almost half of the world's production of 23 billion
bushels. Corn was plentiful and cheap, so congressional "experts" mandated
that a minimum of 7.5 billion barrels of ethanol be included in gasoline
sold in 2012. (It takes about one bushel of corn to produce a gallon of
ethanol.)
The actual production of ethanol in 2011 topped 11 billion gallons, more or
less all of which was included in gasoline, according to an April 2012
Congressional Research Service report. Last week, the Agriculture Department
lowered its projection of the 2012 corn crop by 12%.
Since 2005, the ethanol mandate has driven the average price of corn from
about $2 per bushel to almost $8 per bushel, according to a January 23, 2012
CRS report. But all of the supposed benefits of the mandate have not
appeared. According to that same report, our dependence on foreign oil hasn'
t been reduced at all, and there is no evidence that the ethanol mandate has
driven energy prices down.
If those benefits were going to happen, they would have in times when the
corn crop was plentiful. But now because of the drought, only about 40
percent of the 2012 corn crop is being rated "good to excellent," i.e.,
worth harvesting. The rest may have to be abandoned. Corn futures prices are
rising, which means the cost of the most-used feed for chicken, cattle, and
other livestock will rise as much or more than the price of feed corn.
The arithmetic is simple: the more feed corn is used to produce ethanol, the
less is available to feed those chickens, cattle, and turkeys. About 40
percent of our corn crop is used for ethanol, not for feeding livestock or
people. Simply put, the ethanol mandate is forcing the prices of protein
foods to rise and will continue to do so as long as it exists. And the
mandate costs the federal government billions because gasoline blenders are
given a reported 45 cents per gallon tax credit for using ethanol in their
gasoline.
Last week, a broad coalition of meat and poultry producers petitioned EPA
administrator Lisa Jackson to waive the ethanol mandate, saying the
Renewable Fuel Standard "directly affected the supply and cost of feed in
major agricultural sectors of this country, causing the type of economic
harm that justifies issuance of an RFS waiver."
If only facts mattered, the EPA would waive the ethanol mandate for this
year and Congress would kill it for the years that follow. There is no good
reason for it: the price of corn will drop slightly, but every American who
buys corn for food or to feed his livestock will benefit. And all of us who
have to use gasoline containing ethanol will find that our machinery works
better and more efficiently.
Ethanol is corrosive and has a lot of water in it, so you can't leave your
gas-powered mower or generator filled over the winter unless you want the
inevitable ethanol sludge to destroy its carburetor. Ethanol cannot be
shipped by pipeline as pure petroleum-based fuels can, making it still more
expensive.
The EPA is considering raising the ethanol mandate to require 15 percent
ethanol in gasoline sold, which will bring another problem to everyone who
drives. Few cars can handle the 85-15 gas-ethanol mix, resulting in reduced
performance and possibly damaging high-performance car engines.
Ethanol is less dense than gasoline, so your chain saws and lawnmowers will
start more easily if ethanol is eliminated. Moreover, your car's gas mileage
will rise if ethanol is eliminated. There is no evidence that ethanol
reduces emissions from cars in a measurable way, so the greenies shouldn't'
be upset. But they, and their EPA allies, won't admit that. Politics will
dominate the decision.
The EPA is as political an agency as has ever been incubated in the
Executive Branch. It not only controls the Renewable Fuel Mandate but also
the "corporate average fuel economy" standards for cars and trucks. Last
year, EPA announced a hike in the "CAFE" standards to double them -- to 54.5
miles per gallon -- by 2025. If that new standard is established -- at the
same time EPA continues to insist on the mileage-reducing ethanol mandate --
a lot of cars and small trucks will simply be regulated out of existence.
Ford, planning ahead for the new CAFE standard, has already canceled
production of the popular (and enormously useful) Ranger small pickup. (The
Ranger I own gets poor mileage, but every larger truck is as bad or worse on
fuel consumption.)
Obama's energy agenda is the same as the Global Warmists: drive down the use
of petroleum-based fuels by making them so expensive as to be financially
unfeasible. EPA control of both the CAFE standard and the Renewable Fuels
Mandate enables it to put so much pressure on the car and fuels markets that
the expense of operating a car -- or a truck or a lawnmower -- will be too
much for our economy to bear.
The Obama administration's decimation of our economy won't stop there. If
the ethanol mandate is not waived, the price of food -- for everyone, not
just for the "1%'ers" -- will rise dramatically.
Getting rid of the ethanol mandate is part of the answer, but will Congress
step up to the challenge? Probably not, and certainly not before the
election. Ending the ethanol mandate will probably be just as easy as
reducing the other farm subsidy programs that are as sacrosanct as Social
Security and Medicare. Oil companies won't willingly give up the complex
system of financial incentives that prop up their use of ethanol. But it
needs to be done.
You can count on EPA to refuse a waiver of the ethanol mandate and to push
the higher CAFE standards for cars and trucks. Despite the increases in
gasoline and food prices caused by ethanol, you'll often hear that Obama has
reined in the cost of living. The simple reason is that the Bureau of Labor
Statistics doesn't count food or energy prices in computing the government'
s cost of living index.
American consumers know more about their cost of living than the BLS does.
Politicians like to talk about "kitchen table" issues that families take to
heart. If ever there were one, ridding us of the Renewable Fools Mandate is
it. |
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