The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 595
fuels. In order for private investors to produce ethanol in the quantity that it
needs to retire gasoline, the investors and the alt-fuel industry need the same
government assistance and intervention that was used to make oil/gasoline our
primary fuel. The playing field must be leveled.
The oil industry has benefitted from a staggering amount of government subsidies, which are “paid” out in many forms. Government assistance to the oil and
gasoline industries continues to this very day even though oil-related companies have recorded astronomically huge profits year after year. And we continue
to wage war and use our military to defend the oil industry as if our military was
the oil industry’s own private security force.
Worst of all, hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and servicewomen
have lost their lives in oil-induced wars and military engagements. This is the
incalculable cost that I referred to earlier. What value do we put on the life of an
American soldier, sailor, airman, or marine? Why should we discount their lives
just so that some Arab sheiks and Third World dictators can drive their milliondollar Ferraris in the Desert?
I am not against war; I’m not philosophically opposed to it. I understand the
reasons and need to go to war. Often, I think we have not gone to war quickly
enough. I am, however, against long drawn-out wars where our quick victories
are turned into defeat just to secure an oil position or to protect a bunch of
misogynist racists who pretend that they rule by divine right.
We overpay for gasoline and diesel at the pump, we overpay for them via taxes,
and we overpay with human lives. Later on in his book, Bryce talks about morality. He questions the morality of using farmland to grow products that are
used to create a fuel to replace gasoline. And to help bolster and explain this
position, Bryce uses a quote from Fidel Castro – that’s right, the same Fidel
Castro that made himself a king and then subjected all his fellow countrymen
to a life of serfdom. What a role model for morality.
So, I’ll raise the same morality question, what’s more moral, protecting the lives
of American citizens or protecting an Arabs sheiks’ right to buy a Maserati that
matches his Ferrari?
A study released by the Environmental Law Institute in September 2009, covering the years 2002 to 2008 revealed that:
The federal government provided substantially larger subsidies to fossil
fuels than to renewables. Subsidies to fossil fuels—a mature, developed
