Thursday, August 08, 2013

RFS needs to be repealed

Repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard. It's bad for the environment and even worse morally, when many in developing countries are hungry. Ethanol made from corn is taking agricultural land and using it for fuel. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved, without adequate testing, E15 — a blend of up to 15% ethanol in gasoline — for sale to consumers. This decision wasn't based on consumer demand, but simply to meet arbitrary ethanol mandates in the flawed Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). E15 fuel can cause serious damage and potentially ruin many types of engines, even ones approved by the EPA to use the fuel.

This cannot be blamed on Obama--although he hasn't stopped it. "April 10, 2007--In step with the Bush Administration’s call to increase the supply of alternative and renewable fuels nationwide, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today established the nation’s first comprehensive Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. . . “The Renewable Fuel Standard offers the American people a hat trick – it protects the environment, strengthens our energy security, and supports America’s farmers,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “Today, we’re taking an important first step toward meeting President Bush’s “20 in 10” goal of jumping off the treadmill of foreign oil dependency.”

That was hogwash in 2007 and is even worse now. The ethanol push is welfare for farmers--it actually harms the environment and causes hunger, not security. If one administration makes a mistake, the next one can correct it.

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