Sunday, July 09, 2017

A sop to Big Ag--ethanol standards and subsidies

I've read all the excuses from the experts, and I don't care what they say, to make ethanol from food stuffs when people are hungry around the world, just sounds immoral. God gave us fossil fuels for a reason. We don't need to recreate them.

"According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data for 2015, approximately 13.5 million bushels of corn were produced in 2015, with 39% being used for livestock feed, 30% for ethanol, 12.5% for various exports, 8% for distiller's dried grain, about 5-6% for high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners, and 3% for starches and cereals." (World's healthiest foods newsletter).

http://e360.yale.edu/features/the_case_against_ethanol_bad_for_environment

"Two prices determine its [ethanol] profitability: the price of corn and the price of oil. The higher the price of corn, the more expensive it is to divert from feeding animals or making high-fructose corn syrup and instead distill it as alcohol fuel for cars and trucks. Second, the higher the price of oil, the more economically ethanol can be blended with gasoline. When corn is cheap and oil prices are high, ethanol margins are fat. But when corn prices rise and oil prices fall, ethanol margins are flat."

 It's bad for fuel economy AND the environment.  It only profits the growers who support the legislators who keep this alive.

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