The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 526
The "Unmasking" editorials revealed the connection that exists between the tobacco industry tactics used to lie to the public about the dangers of smoking
with the tactics of the oil industry to lie to the public about the dangers of petroleum oil fuels.
Suffice it to say, there has been no shortage of professional shills to come forward during the past year to take Big Oil's money in exchange for whatever
influence their name brings.
Veronique de Rugy
The very latest in the recent string of stooges is
Veronique de Rugy, an adjunct scholar at the
Cato Institute and a senior research fellow at
the Mercatus Center. She is the perfect example of the type of person I've written about in my
previous editorials; a mix of seemingly impressive academic credentials with what appears to
be a complete and total lack of knowledge of the
issue and what engine fuels are all about.
Her editorial "Is Ethanol Cronyism on the Ropes?" was published on May 3rd
and has now shown up on a variety of websites and blogs. The entities carrying
the piece are, I'm sorry to say, largely those that espouse conservative American values while supporting American dependence on foreign petroleum oil.
This gross inconsistency is hypocrisy, to be sure, but a much better word - a
word that is also in the dictionary - is "oiliness." Nothing says slimy like oiliness.
Some basic facts that I suspect Madame de Rugy doesn't know
Internal combustion engines (ICE) run on liquid or gaseous ignitable fuels. They
can run on gasoline, petroleum diesel, compressed natural gas, propane gas,
ethanol, methanol, biodiesel, and a few other liquid or gaseous substances. The
only true issues of concern, or questions, about vehicle fuels should be:
1. Engine performance
2. Cost at the pump
3. Availability
4. Health and public safety related to contact with, or inhalation of, the
substances
5. Environmental damage
