Ethanol Subsidy Repeal

[schoolsout]

OPEC isn't the one doing the "raping." Oil is traded in US Dollars for the most part. Your government is engaging in quantitative easing which is printing up money to buy our own debt. This process causes the value of the dollar to go down because more dollars hit the market.

Put it this way...if you were playing a game of Monopoly and dumped another game's money into the game you were playing, effectively doubling the supply of money, what do you think would happen to the prices of properties? You would have to double them to get anywhere in the game.

Use your head and pay attention to what YOUR government is doing to YOUR currency.

 

[RonMar]

You can repeal the ethanol subsidy, but since ethanol is now a REQUIRED gasoline additive, the oil companies/refineries will need to get this required additive somewhere. Guess what these producers have been investing in over the past few years? You probably already guessed that it is ethanol plants...

I don't see how burning more of anything can be good for the environment. Ethanol lowers the energy content of a tank of fuel, and decreases economy PERIOD.

Turning food to fuel is pure folly. If you got land, better start a garden!

 

[Milo]

Oil companies get a .45 tax credit for every gallon of ethanol they purchase to blend in to our gas. The government is almost mandating they do so. It's interesting that many pro-ethanol people also make up the anti-big oil group, and complain that big oil is getting subsidies. :confused2:

 

[wally hamma]

You can not even come close to blaming the price of food to the farmers!!
They maybe get .05 for their corn in a box of corn flakes, gee I wonder where the other $'s go?? Bread 1 bushel makes 90 loaves of bread.
Ethanal $$ at least stays in U.S. How many of the people COMPLAINING
are ready to invest alot of $$$ in the feeding and care for the people of the U.S.. I realy think the average person has a clue about the true cost and investment in their food $$$

 

[KWentling]

OPEC isn't the one doing the "raping." Oil is traded in US Dollars for the most part. Your government is engaging in quantitative easing which is printing up money to buy our own debt. This process causes the value of the dollar to go down because more dollars hit the market.

Put it this way...if you were playing a game of Monopoly and dumped another game's money into the game you were playing, effectively doubling the supply of money, what do you think would happen to the prices of properties? You would have to double them to get anywhere in the game.

Use your head and pay attention to what YOUR government is doing to YOUR currency.

Exactly. This country is in real trouble. Debt is killing US.

Kim

 

[Gator6x4]

Reports state the US only gets 9% of the oil it uses from the Middle East. Canada, Mexico and domestic production accounts for the other. Ethanol or some other blend is here to stay I am afraid.

Oxygenate blending

Oxygenate blending adds oxygen to the fuel in oxygen-bearing compounds such as MTBE, ETBE and ethanol, and so reduces the amount of carbon monoxide and unburned fuel in the exhaust gas, thus reducing smog. In many areas throughout the US oxygenate blending is mandated by EPA regulations to reduce smog and other airborne pollutants. For example, in Southern California, fuel must contain 2% oxygen by weight, resulting in a mixture of 5.6% ethanol in gasoline. The resulting fuel is often known as reformulated gasoline (RFG) or oxygenated gasoline. The federal requirement that RFG contain oxygen was dropped 6 May 2006 because the industry had developed VOC-controlled RFG that did not need additional oxygen.[24]

MTBE use is being phased out in some states due to issues with contamination of ground water. In some places, such as California, it is already banned. Ethanol and to a lesser extent the ethanol derived ETBE are common replacements. Since most ethanol is derived from biomatter such as corn, sugar cane or grain, it is referred to as bio-ethanol. A common ethanol-gasoline mix of 10% ethanol mixed with gasoline is called gasohol or E10, and an ethanol-gasoline mix of 85% ethanol mixed with gasoline is called E85. The most extensive use of ethanol takes place in Brazil, where the ethanol is derived from sugarcane. In 2004, over 3.4 billion US gallons (2.8 billion imp gal/13 million m³) of ethanol was produced in the United States for fuel use, mostly from corn, and E85 is slowly becoming available in much of the United States, though many of the relatively few stations vending E85 are not open to the general public.[25] The use of bioethanol, either directly or indirectly by conversion of such ethanol to bio-ETBE, is encouraged by the European Union Directive on the Promotion of the use of biofuels and other renewable fuels for transport. However since producing bio-ethanol from fermented sugars and starches involves distillation, ordinary people in much of Europe cannot legally ferment and distill their own bio-ethanol at present (unlike in the US where getting a BATF distillation permit has been easy since the 1973 oil crisis.)

 

[schoolsout]

Exactly. This country is in real trouble. Debt is killing US.

Kim

Slowly, people are waking up. In my opinion, it is too late. The damage has been done. There is no turning back.

 

[davygp38]

I did find how much the oil companies paid and I want to say the Exxon was $10 billion or so. This was from last year and I do not remember what tax year was reported but I did see numbers going back into the 90's.

The so called oil subsidy numbers I found on very anti oil websites and worked out to $3 billion a year. Not a lot of money compared to what they paid in taxes. Certainly not enough to put them out of business if they did not get the tax break.

Oil is a commodity and the market is going to drive the price. The price is going to go up. Then the price is going down. For the next few years prices is going to go up. My two cents is that oil is going to climb higher as the economy improves and world wide oil requirements increase. China uses half of the oil we use in the US but their demand is growing 10% a year. Eventually India has to kick in demand if they have not already.

Oil is priced in dollars and the value of the dollar is falling due to Federal government policies. I would love to see someone study the effect this has on the price of fuel in the US. If you have a bunch of dollars what do you do with them? The value of the dollar is falling. If you hold onto it what will the value be next week? Should you trade the dollar for a euro? Not likely. Chinese or Japanese currency? I surely would not. It would be in a physical resource that is in demand like oil or gold. If enough people do this then the price will go up. The hard part is knowing when to get out near the high part of the price curve.

Which is what is driving up the price of both gold and oil. Not the big, bad, evil oil companies.

Later,
Dan

I guess I am old fashioned. When 3 Billion dollars of our tax money is " Not A lot compared to what they Pay, " Companies that make money hand over fist should not be getting kickbacks because they donated to a political campaign. Subsidies were originally intended for industries that were on the verge of going out of business, but were considered vital to our national security. Farmers used to get a lot of subsidies, to keep the U.S. in the for front of Farm innovation, and production. The oil industry does not need any tax breaks period.