MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘ethanol’

Biden’s Food and Fuel Crisis — It’s the Policy, Stupid

Posted by M. C. on June 10, 2022

By Tom Luongo

Gold Goats ‘n Guns

But the rest of the Biden Junta is clearly in on the grift here as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg did the Sunday talk show circuit to disavow any complicity by the administration in this mess.

Let them eat, EVs I guess.

They aren’t stupid, they are just liars and vandals. It’s intentional. Personnel is policy.

Biden’s Food and Fuel Crisis — It’s the Policy, Stupid

So, how about those fuel prices? Fun ain’t it to spend more on filling up your tank than it costs for a decent meal at a second-rate restaurant?

So you thought you could afford that $45,000 truck and the $700/month payment.

Guess again.

After suckering everyone in with low monthly payments for obscenely overpriced clunkers, the Biden Junta spent 2021 setting up to let you out of your house because COVID was over, only to ensure you couldn’t afford to drive anywhere.

It was policy, folks. It’s always been policy.

Everything else they tell you is a lie.

High gas prices are NOT just a function of high oil prices, supported by purposeful disruptions to the market thanks to the slap-happy sanctions machines in DC and Brussels.

High gas prices are NOT even a function of more than 2 million barrels per day of refining capacity taken offline during the unnecessary and terminally-damaging COVID lockdowns.

High gas prices are most certainly NOT a function of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

All of these things can be overcome by the ingenuity of human beings in times of chaos. If there’s one thing I have faith in is people’s ability to re-route their behavior and find workable solutions.

The natural response to an arbitrage opportunity always brings out the best in people, as they find ways to supply the things you demand to live your life.

The only thing standing in the way of that, invariably, is your government. In the case of the U.S., the Biden Junta has done everything possible to ensure that not only would gas prices rise to a completely unacceptable level, but that they would stay there until what’s left of the middle class is left broke and out of gas by the side of the road.

A couple of months ago there was a little announcement that the Biden administration would raise the cap on ethanol blending into gasoline stocks beyond the 10% limit in order to alleviate the ‘gas shortage.’

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Corn Pop Mandates More . . . Corn

Posted by M. C. on April 18, 2022

Corn Pop Mandates More . . . Corn

By eric

Here’s a great way to reduce the artificially induced doubling of the price of a gallon of gas: Reduce how far a gallon of gas will propel your car.

That’s what Corn Pop just did by issuing a diktat – these are styled “executive orders” to make them seem less diktaty – that “gas” will henceforth be 85 percent gas rather than 90 percent. Another 5 percent of the stuff you pump will be ethanol – alcohol derived from corn.

Supposedly, this will reduce the cost of a gallon since ethanol is “renewable” and made right here, in the USSA. Actually, it will reduce the fuel efficiency of every car that burns it because alcohol contains substantially less energy (BTUs) than gasoline. So you’ll pay a bit less – maybe – but you’ll go less far.

And so, pay more often.

Isn’t it grand?

Corn Pop pays off the corn lobby – the agribusiness cartels that control the corn in this country – and Americans get to pay more, again.

They will also pay more in other ways.

For food, for instance. Corn diverted to make fuel means less corn for feed – for cattle. And chickens and pigs and every other iteration of livestock that eats corn. You’ll pay more to get to and from the store and while at the store, you’ll pay more for what’s in the store.

That’s what Corn Pop has in store for you.

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Children of the Corn and the Fraud of Renewable Energy

Posted by M. C. on March 24, 2022

This spring, Ukrainian farmers might have a little trouble between missile strikes getting their crops planted. However, if Ukrainian agriculture is taken offline by war, American farmers can make up some of the difference by raising food rather than fuel additives. That is, if Congress lets them.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/03/children_of_the_corn_and_the_fraud_of_renewable_energy.html

By Jon N. Hall

In July of 2021, this writer took a little trip through rural Missouri. Besides visiting kinfolk whom I hadn’t seen for far too long, one purpose of my trip was simply to do something else, something different. You see, I’d become something of a recluse and I really needed to just go outside, blow the stink off, maybe even commune with Nature, whatever that is.

My destination was a spot near the center of the northeast quadrant of the state, about a three-hour trip by car. The most expeditious route from Kansas City would be to take I-70 to Columbia and then motor north on US 63 for about an hour. Not really interested in expedience, I chose the scenic route, “a road less traveled,” US 24 to be exact.

Driving eastward on 24, what impressed me was the modern world’s utter dependence on petroleum. Not only was I leisurely tooling along in my 1990 Taurus, which happens to burn gasoline, but everything I surveyed depended on oil. The lawns and pastures of the rural folk were nicely manicured. All that mowing takes a lot of oil, but that’s nothing when compared to the crops, especially the corn.

The corn crop did not look like any corn that this kid could remember. It was lush and tightly packed, dense even. Every field looked like it had been planted and cultivated by the same farmer, maybe some corporation. I’d bet a buck that this corn I drove past was genetically-modified Frankencorn, and totally dependent on high-powered fertilizers. I’ve probably eaten tons of it in the cheap salty corn chips I’m addicted to.

Corn (a.k.a. maize) is used not just as food for people and cattle, it’s also used to produce ethanol, and not just for boozers, but to mix in with our gasoline.

Since 2005, Congress has required oil refineries to add ethanol, mostly from corn, to their gasoline. It’s called the “Renewable Fuel Standard” (RFS). The EPA runs the program. In January, Reuters reported: “EPA will have to decide on the next phase of the program in coordination with the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture. The EPA plans to propose requirements… in May this year.”

Members of Congress should not leave the changing of RFS to some pointy-headed bureaucrat in the administrative state (i.e. the EPA) but should adjust the program themselves. And they should seriously consider ending the program. Or, they might consider an idea floated in “How To Fix The Ethanol Industry” by Robert Rapier at Forbes in 2019.

To understand just how wacky the RFS is, read “Stop the Ethanol Madness” by Mario Loyola, which ran at the Atlantic in November of 2019. Loyola explains how RFS is not only uneconomic but is also destroying the environment. Loyola asserts that “today’s corn-ethanol program is a glaring failure, and it is unconscionable that politicians of both parties are conspiring to keep it alive despite knowing full well what its problems are.”

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Why Your Gasoline Won’t Take You As Far As it Used To | OilPrice.com

Posted by M. C. on May 6, 2019

Even “W” figured this out long ago. I believe that is why he suggested switch grass.

It takes about as much energy to make ethanol as you get out of it.

Corn to ethanol has managed to mangle the corn for food market.

Plus it is screwing up the environment.

Thank you Washington.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Why-Your-Gasoline-Wont-Take-You-As-Far-As-it-Used-To.html

By Robert Rapier

Over the weekend, I saw a passing reference on Twitter to the declining energy content of gasoline. Intuitively I know this to be correct for reasons I discuss below. But the poster linked to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that I hadn’t previously seen.

The EIA doesn’t directly tabulate the energy content of gasoline. But they do provide two pieces of data that let us calculate it ourselves from two relevant tables in the April 2019 Monthly Energy Review.

Table 3.5 provides Petroleum Products Supplied by Type in thousands of barrels per day, while Table 3.6 provides Heat Content of Petroleum Products Supplied by Type in trillion Btus per year.

From the annual numbers, doing the appropriate conversions (which includes accounting for leap years) provides the energy content of gasoline, in BTUs per gallon, since 1949. What we find is that the EIA reported a constant energy content of gasoline from 1949 to 1992 of 125,071 Btu/gallon. I have always typically used 125,000 Btu/gal as the standard value for gasoline.

(Click to enlarge)

The energy content of gasoline

Starting in 1993, the EIA shows the energy content start to decline. The decline accelerates in 2006. What happened then? I have seen two explanations floated.

I have heard some suggest that the shale oil boom in the U.S., which created an abundance of light oil, ultimately lowered the BTU value of gasoline. This is unlikely for a couple of reasons.

First, to change the energy content of gasoline you must change the composition. As I explained in a previous article, adding butane is a recipe change that takes place seasonally. It impacts the vapor pressure of the gasoline, but it also impacts the energy content. Butane has an energy content of 103,000 BTU/gal, so the more butane, the lower the energy content of the gasoline blend. This means that winter gasoline, which contains more butane, has a lower energy content. Related: Overly Bullish Hedge Funds Set The Stage For Oil Price Drop

But the other reason that shale oil can’t be the culprit is that U.S. oil production didn’t start to move higher until 2009. By then, the EIA was already reporting that U.S. gasoline’s energy content had fallen to 121,167 BTU/gal.

Here’s the real culprit:

The impact of ethanol blending on the energy content of gasoline…

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Ethanol Free Fuel Vs. Ethanol Fuel - The Great Efficiency ...

 

 

 

 

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