Corn subsidies; well, perhaps more specifically the ethanol subsidy The Senate voted to end them, but the House didn't act. This subsidy needs to go and with it, corn once again used as a food, not a fuel!!
I've got nothing but praise and admiration for our agricultural industry, but this idiotic use of corn to make ethanol has got to END NOW!!
Back in the day this was put in place, there were good reasons to have it. Gasoline prices were very high, corn prices were very low. Ethanol was predicted to be a pretty good substitute but in order for refineries to tool up in support of the new mix, farmers needed to produce a lot of it. Hence the subsidies made sense. Technology has evolved and now there are better choices and subsidies no longer make good sense. So, I agree, but your anger that they eve happened isn't warranted. Shit changes.
Burning our food and feed stock for animals has never made sense. and what technolgies have "evolved" and what "better choices" are you referring to?
No one has come up with a better mousetrap, they have just finally come to their sense and figured out that we have to abandon this quite expensive and unworkable boondoggle. There still is no viable replacement for hydrocarbon based energy in the immediate future, that doesn't mean that we should stop looking, but throwing countless billions at a failed technology is not the answer either.
Hybrids, high mileage gas engines, more accessible public transportation ( although not much).
Brazil has a pretty good success story with ethanol but I am not advocating it for everyone. I'm just saying there was a time when it seemed sensible, albeit a short time.
and their model doens't work a lot better than ours. The reason Brazil is energy independent is that they found billions upon billions of barrels of oil off their coast. Their ethanol industry doesn't even break even, but it is still heads and shoulders above ours.
Corn based ethanol was a booddoggle from day one, and it's high time it was stopped completely.
brazil produces a TON of soy too. between the soy and cane their eatin up a great deal of land. there, the enviro crowd is screaming about deforestation....cant win for losing eh?
ask anyone you know in refining how much they love ethanol and what it does to their equiptment...my buddy at T just rolls his eyes and mutters profanities.
the whole friggin industry is propped up by DC funny $$'s...the smart $$ built refineries and cashed out!
The big money in ethanol has already been made. Even it's biggest former supporters are reluctantly admitting it is a failed technology, something I (and your friend) have known since the beginning.
team buying grains for a national food concern..one of my friends was putting together syndicates for building refiners in Ill...needless to say he was NOT taking stock in leui
You KNOW it's a boodoggle. lol
I ALWAYS take a piece of every deal I am involved with, if its not worth taking a piece of, it's not worth putting my reputation on the line to get it done.
no doubt. i hear some of the nat gas deals have a whiff of pump and dump too. yeilds are not as advertized.
Right now, not only am I drunk, but I have about $20K at risk on the late baseball games.
Remind me tomorrow, and I will give you my opinion as to why supposedly smart companies like Devon and Chesapeake are making deals that on the surface make no economic sense.