The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 419
In 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy concluded a report on LIFECYCLE
ENERGY BALANCE by stating "...corn-based ethanol shows a clear benefit
over gasoline." You can read this report at:
http://www.afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/emissions_balance.html.
So Barry, unless you have some other information - which you don't - say goodbye to the issue of EROEI.
6. You ask "What makes this corn-based ethanol so special that it does not
have to compete in the Anti-Free Market for customers?"
My answer to this today is what it was in my last two replies to you: It's not
ethanol that should have to compete in the free market, it's gasoline that should
have to compete in a free market without all the subsidies and allowances they
have been given continuously for more than a century. In addition, oil companies and gasoline distributors should be charged with restraint of trade and antitrust violations. There is nothing so special about gasoline and other oil products that deserve the protection of an anti-free market.
As I wrote in my last reply to you, the concern for us, at least for me as a patriotic
American, is to insure a safe and sane American free market. I'm not interested
in helping foreign ethanol producers at the expense of American farmers and
producers. There is no benefit to allowing someone else to dump products in
America. Domestic ethanol is already cheaper than gasoline and diesel, and if
we want our fuels at the pump even cheaper then there should be no restrictions
on how much ethanol can be sold at a fueling station.
The free-market restriction we should all be concerned about is that higher level
ethanol-gasoline blends are not allowed at every single service station. Pumps
should be available that allow the consumer to choose whatever blend level
they choose, from E0 to E99, with all the stops along the way. Who is stopping
this from happening? Not the ethanol industry, it's the oil industry.
What's more, it should be illegal for an oil company to impose severe financial
penalties on independently-owned stations for adding in independent fuel options. Let the power of the consumer's purse control the market; make all and
any blend level available; remove the subsidies that are given to the oil industry
- as they have for more than 100 years - and let the price of gasoline and diesel
reflect their real cost, which might be as high as $15-$20 per gallon.
