I say its because we were running out of money,....... but that wasn't a problem, they could print more,...... so I think we're running out of ink to print more money.

Good. Ethanol was a bad idea for everyone except for a few politically connected cronies who ran large corn-to-ethanol companies and made big bucks off the subsidies.

They shared a with the farmers, that was ok.... it created a demand for it..... but the energy put in to make the ethanol was a bust.

bad idea? its the biggest RIPOFF Boondoggle of our time. the farm lobby pushed this through and we all lost. thank goodness for fracking!

I've never heard of these guys, but they seem to do a good job of breaking it down.

http://necsi.edu/research/social/foodprices/foodforfuel/

We are being screwed.

I have a hard time putting into words, how sick I am of the self serving greed, selfishness, and absolute sickening stupidity that is rooted in Washington DC.

burning nat gas to "cook" the mash that becomes ethanol was always the Achilles of truth here. its been a ripoff before they even rammed legislation through

Speaking of NG, I can't help but wonder how much further along we would be with CNG/LNG vehicles, if the government hadn't mandated stupid.

This looks like a serious blow to the pocketbook for Americans. Allow me to explain:

We have legislation on the books mandating increased production of Ethanol for automotive fuel, with tiered levels. The legislation does not mandate a specific percentage of Ethanol to be blended into the gasoline, it mandates a solid production of X thousands of gallons of Ethanol per tier, regardless of the amount blended into gasoline, and regardless of the potential that people may attempt to consume less fuel per year. This legislation also has mandated penalty fees that refineries must pay if they fail to meet their quota of Ethanol blended into gasoline.

As the refineries were not able to make the initial quotas (Ethanol was not able to be made at commercial quantities when the bill was passed) they had to pay the fees (or 'buy the offset vouchers,' but since there were no refineries producing over quotas, the only ones to 'buy' the vouchers from was the Fed) and the cost was passed on to the gas pump, raising the price of gas.

As the price of gas rose, people began gutting back on their 'superfluous' usage, reducing demand, but the legislation mandated a minimum quantity of Ethanol to be blended in per year, and the reduced demand meant that there was less gas needed to be mixed with ethanol, which meant less ethanol blended in, which meant that quotas were not met again, and more 'offset vouchers' had to be purchased, which meant the price of gas rose again, which returns us to the start of this paragraph in a vicious loop.

Now with the restriction on E15 fuel, it will be even harder to meet the ethanol quotas, which means yet another hike in gas prices.

I'm not even going to start ranting about how this more expensive fuel is less efficient than the old stuff, or how the engines aren't designed for higher the higher E percentage fuels and can be damaged by too much ethanol, which the vehicle warranties won't cover, as the operator manuals specify the highest E fuel that the engine is rated for, and using the 'wrong' fuel can be taken as an act that voids the warranty.

With all the ethanol, corn starch and HFCS being forced on us, it's almost enough to make one wish for a Corn Blight epidemic to wipe out the entire family of plants so the Corn Cartel will dry up and blow away like an empty husk.

.... to make one wish for a Corn Blight epidemic to wipe out the entire family of plants so the Corn Cartel will dry up and blow away like an empty husk.....

Problem with that is, it would create a panic in the petroleum industry, that will create a false shortages, which create fuel price gouging.

Oh yeah, we need to make sure nothing panics the petroleum industry into creating false shortages, they do enough of that themselves:

"We've got all our refineries running at 98% capacity, there's no need to build more. Oh, it's time to take a refinery offline for its once-every-five-year scheduled overhaul, OH NO, WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH CAPACITY, WE NEED TO RAISE GAS PRICES! THIS SNUCK UP ON US, WE COULD NOT HAVE FORSEEN THAT WE'D LOSE A REFINERY TO SCHEDULED DOWNTIME!"

"We've built so many refineries right on the Gulf of Mexico, in cheap swampland that gets hit by hurricanes frequently. We're so smart to save on pipelines to move the crude oil further inland, we can use the pipeline we saved to move the refined fuel further inland instead. OH NO, THE REFINERIES GOT HIT MY A HURRICANE, WE NEED TO RAISE GAS PRICES! THIS SNUCK UP ON US, HOW COULD WE HAVE FORSEEN THAT A HURRICANE WOULD BLOW THROUGH IN THE MIDDLE OF HURRICANE COUNTRY!"

"Big yellow day-ball go away, IT END OF WORLD! RAISE GAS PRICES! Oh, day-ball come back, it was just 'night'? CELEBRATE WORLD NOT ENDING, RAISE GAS PRICES!"

"Something's following me, AHHH! RAISE GAS PRICES! Oh, it's just my shadow? YAY! RAISE GAS PRICES!"

Petroleum companies gouge us at the gas pump every chance they get, petroleum company gouging is like politicians lying; If X exists, then X does Y, no exceptions.

Nothing panics them......... they just takes advantage of the markets.......

As far as the refineries, that is covered more than one way........ one being is that it is a monopoly to control supply,

The other is new refineries are ^{(for a lack of a better word)} burdened with regulations and impact studies.....

actually.........the main reason no refinery has been built in 35 years in the states is thanks to tree Huggers, the old NIMBY we need more capacity

When we there was a oil shortage, a fe years back...... people blamed the Middle East.......

Saudi Arabia stated that they would be happy to ship more crude oil to us,..... but they said there will still be a shortage because we would not be able to refine it because the refineries was running at capacity..

That's a pitiful excuse. They can build refineries by the dozen, if they're willing to put the extra $ and effort into satisfying environmental regulations.

The oil market is a global one. Where consumers ANYWHERE are willing to pay for it, whether the cost is in money, health or environmental damage, that's where they'll build refineries.

Having experienced the tough end of strong arming for market share for just a few thousand dollars...... I do not know if that is as easy as you make it to be,........ If not easy, at least a health risk.

Just picked up a carb kit for one of my weed whackers today.

Why can't they just stop this nonsense?

Oh. BTW...My 86 GMC pickup is parked also. It's got a mystery fuel leak somewhere underneath, and it's been too damned cold to go lay in the dirt and look for it.

Appears to work in Brazil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil

it is a real fuel that can be used, it takes more work than gasoline but yes it works. it doesn't have as high of an energy density as gas(hence the poorer mileage). and cane is easier for them to produce per ton than corn is for us but we can live long lives without wasting nat gas to make ethanol

There are also two sides to every shiny coin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Brazil

I suspect that the land in the US that is dedicated to ethanol production, would be put to better use as forest land, in terms of total CO2 sequestration...along with responsible timber harvests.

I would never argue the link you gave. I have been there on business and what i saw was vast areas of sugar cane. Brazil is after energy independance and virtually nothing, as they percieve it, will stand in their way. Their cars, as purchased there, are all ethanol powered, with a small gasoline tank to start them. Their economy is booming and all at the expense of the rain forest. Bottom line its all about the almighty $. Problem is the company i work for looks at Brazil as a new powerful market to be exploited, so we are in the same boat as they are. All about the $.

Well, since the rainforest that is already gone, is gone, ethanol seems like a good idea for Brazil.

I was also surprised, (via your link), at how long they've been at it. There's a big difference in long term development, along with producing cars that are specifically built to burn alcohol, and our way; which is for Washington to mandate ethanol, subsidize farmers and oil companies to get it into our fuel supply, and force engine manufactures and end users to just deal with the results.

In the 2-stroke market alone, ethanol has caused untold billions in damage.

That's not the way to do things.

It's funny that fossil fuel is blamed for global warming and increased CO2 levels, when you stop to consider, that without fossil fuel, we humans would have deforested and burned the entire planet before the end of the 20th century.

Long Term development and commitment.

To make biofuels more viable, you have to make use of all the by-products…….. but even that does not justify biofuels…..

One of the by-products of biofuels via transesterification is Glycerin, which is Hygroscopic….. the food industry,….. baking in particular using this quite a bit…….. ever wonder why your muffins are so moist that you purchases at the convenient gas station????? You can thank Glyerin for that.

But I'm sure the market is flooded with glycerin….