HOT AIR
July 18, 2013
Oh, I’ll tell you
what’s ridiculous: That the artificial incentives (hint: mandate) created by the Renewable
Fuels Standard are messing with worldwide
food prices, to the detriment of the poor; that both environmentalists
groups and oil companies now think that ethanol is a generally terrible idea;
that all of this biofuel production is turning out to be demonstrablynot even a little bit “green,” as
it brings marginal lands into production and
costs more carbon to produce than it actually saves; that Europe (Europe!) is now
scaling back on what they’re
beginning to admit is one heck of an expensive taxpayer subsidy; that the
federal government’s arbitrary standards are a factor
in rising gas prices; and that somehow, somehow, the Big
Ethanol Lobby and the bureaucrats who
love them are still able to say that this was ever a worthwhile endeavor while
maintaining a straight face. That is
all highly, wildly ridiculous.
But let none of that
deter the oh-so-august policymakers of the Obama administration. Over the past
few months, there’s brewing storm over the RFS, which requires refiners to
blend an ever-increasing volume of specific biofuels into the fuel supply or
else buy increasingly pricey credits, and even
Congress has been examining
the possibility that it would
really just be better for everyone if we flat-out got rid of the whole accursed
thing.
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