Why are biofuels being forced onto America?
This year the EPA has mandated that 8.65 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol be mixed with gasoline. If a producer can’t obtain cellulosic ethanol to mix with its gasoline, it must pay a penalty in the form of waivers.
So far, in 2010 and 2011, companies have had to “buy” $10 million of waivers. This cost finds its way into the price of gasoline at the pump.
It’s preposterous, but this mandate requires companies to buy a product that doesn’t exist.
This is how the environmental movement has forced untenable rules and regulations onto the American public.
But why?
The two reasons heard most often are:
- To free the U.S. from being dependent on foreign oil.
- To cut CO2 emissions to help prevent global warming.
The first excuse is ludicrous. There is enough oil in North America to supply the U.S. for decades to come. Of course, a good portion of this oil would come from Canadian oil sands, and they are condemned by environmentalists for emitting CO2. That is the real reason behind the effort to kill the Keystone pipeline.
There is a strong scientific case that CO2 is not the primary cause of global warming. The publication, Climate Change Reconsidered, at http://www.nipccreport.org/reports/2009/pdf/CCR2009FullReport.pdf a report by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, contains a wealth of information explaining why CO2 is not a real problem. Merely reading the eight-page executive summary will provide people with the information needed to make a judgment on this issue.
The National Academy of Sciences has also concluded that the biofuel mandates “may be an ineffective way to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.”
As has been widely reported, temperatures have remained steady or have declined over the past dozen years, which contradicts all computer programs on which the global warming threat is based.
It’s also been pointed out that biofuels emit CO2, which undermines the supposed reason for requiring the use of cellulosic ethanol – a product that doesn’t exist outside the laboratory in spite of the government having spent over $1.5 billion of taxpayer money in grants and loan subsidies.
Similar to Solyndra, the most outrageous failure and bankruptcy of a biofuels company to-date, was Cello. Cello had gone so far as to show investors a fuel made from petroleum when asking for money to produce ethanol from cellulosic plant material. It received the first round of funding from the government.
Cello went bankrupt in October 2010.
* * * * * *
If you find these articles on energy issues interesting and informative, you can have them delivered directly to your mailbox by going to the Email Subscription heading below the photo.
Please forward this message to those who might be interested in these articles on energy issues.
* * * * * *
[To find earlier articles, click on the name of the preceding month below the calendar to display a list of articles published in that month. Continue clicking on the name of the preceding month to display articles published in prior months.]
© Power For USA, 2010 – 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Power For USA with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
(4)
