Moonshine stills, government mandated and government funded. Along with the government mandated phase-out of incandescent light bulbs, and new CAFE standards for mileage that gaurantee the jobs in Michigan won’t be coming back, the recently passed Energy Bill force feeds corn ethanol into the marketplace to the tune of 15 billion gallons by 2015 (three times today’s output). Good idea, eh? Uh, no, not really, unless you’re a big midwest agribiz company. The February issue of Popular Mechanics has a good op-ed piece about it
Let’s start with the math. Corn doesn’t grow like a weed. Modern corn farming involves heavy inputs of nitrogen fertilizer (made with natural gas), applications of herbicides and other chemicals (made mostly from oil), heavy machinery (which runs on diesel) and transportation (diesel again). Converting the corn into fuel requires still more energy. The ratio of how much energy is used to make ethanol versus how much it delivers is known as the energy balance, and calculating it is surprisingly complex.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory states that, “Today, 1 Btu of fossil energy consumed in producing and delivering corn ethanol results in 1.3 Btu of usable energy in your fuel tank.” Even that modest payback may be overstated. Skeptics cite the research of Cornell Uni¬versity professor David Pimentel, who estimates that it takes approximately 1.3 gal. of oil to produce a single gallon of ethanol.
If the benefits are in doubt, the costs are not. It would take 450 pounds of corn to yield enough ethanol to fill the tank of an SUV. Producing enough ethanol to replace America’s imported oil alone would require putting nearly 900 million acres under cultivation—or roughly 95 percent of the active farmland in the country. Once we’ve turned our farms into filling stations, where will the food come from?
Typical of government, big money talks, and big money in this case is OUR money, which the current government is giving away in bushels. But this is not simply about ethanol, not just the Energy Bill, but the mortgage bail-out, the latest spending bill porkfest, and yesterday’s 3/4 point rate cut… all of these things are evidence of an extremely heavy handed National government bound and determined to control all aspects of the economy. Where in the Constitution did we the people give the Federal government the power to determine what kind of light bulb we’ll use? How is it that nobody even blinks an eye when the Feds run roughshod over legal contracts like mortgages? May I ask, how much different is that from an outright eminent domain “taking”? The ethanol solution to America’s energy addiction is a perfect example of large government run amuck, and not just on the Federal level. Need I remind you of California’s recent idea of remotely controlled household thermostats?
The hairpulling and cursing in the wake of Fred Thompson’s exit from the Presidential race illustrates one of the problems that all of us have built in to the process of how we select our leaders and run our government. It’s the messiah thing, the idea that one man (or one woman) can make THE DIFFERENCE. Oh yes, we can make cracks about Obama being the “Golden Child” and the “new Democrat messiah”. Evangelicals are looking to Huckabee the same way. And yes, we conservatives were doing the same thing with Fred. We make the same mistake when we blame Bush for much of what’s wrong, or wistfully compare candidates to Ronald Reagan.
Look folks, one man doesn’t make or break this government. No, don’t tell me about how important the upcoming SCOTUS nominations might be. While we move slowly towards the next vacancy on the court, the entire rest of the government, from Congress on down to your city council is stealing your money, spending it hand over fist, often times on things we don’t believe in, and controlling our lives in ways that grow increasingly onerous every year. Hello? It doesn’t take a Supreme Court to mandate a very large chunk of the nation’s economy be delivered over to specific energy producers. It won’t take a court to take over the health care industry. And it won’t take a particular President to change your schools or build your roads.
Liberty is hard work. That’s part of the problem in America right now… folks don’t really want to take care of themselves, much less take the time to learn something about the process and the people who want to control it. I’d think I was preaching to the choir here, but after reading a lot of blog posts the last few days I have to tell you I’m amazed at the number of otherwise intelligent folks who seem more than willing to blow this year’s elections off and just not show up. I’m hoping that by the time the elections actually get here, that will no longer be the case. Do we really get the government we deserve? I’m hoping we can do better than that.
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