http://home.netscape.com/ex/shak/autos/specials/Ethanol1.html
È Feature Article Sunday - May 12, 2002 The Ethanol Subsidy: Your Tax Dollars at Work Using the shibboleth of promoting "renewable" energy sources, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and other Democratic bigwigs are about to dole out yet more corporate welfare to the ethanol lobby - most notably the giant agribusiness conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland. Ethanol is an alcohol fuel (and motor-fuel additive) derived from corn; thus it is touted as a way to help end America's dependence upon Middle Eastern oil, as well as a means of helping the environment. But ethanol is no environmental panacea; nor is it energy-efficient. Far from it. Producing ethanol is costly and complex, and uses up more oil-based energy resources than the gasoline and other motor fuels it would ostensibly replace. And burning ethanol in an internal-combustion engine creates environmental problems, too, which add to the complexity of the air-quality problem by throwing yet another variable into the emissions-control equation. Multiple types of fuel, and different requirements regarding fuel additives, make it harder for the auto industry to develop effective new emissions-control equipment. Different fuel types and additive packages can (and do) compromise the effectiveness and long-term durability of the emissions-control equipment already in service. Yet Sen. Daschle and his fellow porkers in the House and Senate want to extend the existing subsidy to ethanol producers for at least another decade--crop subsidies since 1996 alone have been worth more than $30 billion--and mandate the increased use of ethanol as a gasoline additive. A provision inserted into the Senate version of the energy bill currently under consideration would force gasoline refiners to use 5 billion gallons of ethanol as an additive (or component) of the motor fuels they produce by 2012. That's more than double the current amount of ethanol being used--every drop of it an extortionate transfer payment from the American taxpayer to giant, politically connected agribusinesses. This new subsidy would be worth billions. And that's on top of the billions the agribusiness lobby already suckles from taxpayers. It would also create what amounts to a guaranteed market share, in perpetuity, that would be immune from any market mechanisms whatsoever. Whether ethanol is good for the environment, or good for the energy situation, becomes utterly irrelevant. It may even be bad for both (more on that below). None of that will matter. Taxpayers and motorists would simply get to pay a government-enforced fee to Archer Daniels Midland and other beneficiaries of corn-state corporate welfare, courtesy of the political pull of those such as Daschle. The icing on the cake? If passed, the legislation would not only guarantee this massive new subsidy, it would grant a "safe harbor" protecting ethanol producers from legal action or other consequences arising out of problems--including environmental and health problems--traced back to ethanol's use as a motor fuel or motor-fuel additive. This from the party of the "little guy" and the environment. Another problem (all those billions aside) is that we could easily experience a repeat of last year's fuel shortages and price spikes as a result of all this, only much worse. The cause of those shortages was not the greedy Middle Eastern cartels, but the shipping, distribution, and refining problems associated with fuel requirements that differ from state to state, as well as shortages of various additives and fuel "mixes" in some regions of the country. Ethanol, which is used as an "oxygenate" in some states, played a big role in that. By forcing refiners to use yet more ethanol, which is produced almost entirely by a cartel of three major companies (the biggest of which is ADM), the likelihood of future fuel shortages and price spikes is huge. This egregious (and dangerous) hog-slopping much be stopped, and it's up to decent lawmakers of both parties to see to it that Daschle doesn't succeed in legislating this taxpayer-financed payoff to his buddies at Archer Daniels Midland. Back to Autos Home È COPYRIGHT 2002 ERIC PETERS. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Stock for $4 and no minimums. FREE Money 2002. http://us.click.yahoo.com/orkH0C/n97DAA/Ey.GAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
