| Message |
suffer when the government ended the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit. This was the government subsidy to ethanol. Well this ended at the end of 2011 and since then, more ethanol plants have been built and ethanol production has increased. That occurred without government subsidy. The Renewable Fuel Standard remains in place to provide a way to limit the monopoly of oil. This mandate could be eliminated by Congress if a certain mix of Democrats and Republicans are voted into office who want to eliminate the standard. If the RFS is eliminated, consumers and their cars will still demand a certain level of octane in their fuel. The cheapest way to achieve this octane is to blend in ethanol. This morning I priced "pure gas" or ethanol free gas. It was $0.60 more a gallon than regular gas. This reflects the higher costs of the oil based aromatics that can be used to get the required octane. If despite the cost, a larger amount of gas with aromatics is used, the EPA will be compelled to put limits on aromatics use due to health issues. The EPA is looking into doing it now. Ethanol is the safest and cheapest way to get the octane we need, and this should insure that ethanol is available despite what Congress does about the RFS. There remains the remote possibility that the oil industry could figure out some other way to monopolize the fuel industry despite the economic and health costs.
|
 |
