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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January 23rd, 2008 at 7:14 am
I agree with you in principle, but please explain to me which of the potential nominees has any inclination to change the status quo. Ron Paul is the only one and he has no chance in heck of winning a general election even if he did have any hope of securing the nomination.
Our choice is going to be between a socialist statist and a populist statist
What’s the difference?
I will show up at the polls to vote for Senate and House races or any state or local level races that happen to be going on, but if my choices are lose/lose in the Presidential race, I’ll either write someone in or not vote.
OK, that means that we get stuck with the socialist statist…so what? So we head down the path of totalitarianism a little quicker than if the populist statist wins. Maybe that would be a good thing. It seems inevitable at this point so the quicker we get there, the quicker people MIGHT wake up and realize how stupid they’ve been, get motivated and take the government back from the elite and get it back into the hands of the People where it belongs.
We are in the cycle described by Alexander Tyler. Our government is on the downhill slope and it is only a matter of time before it falls of it’s own weight.
Anyway, as far as Thompson, he seemed to be our only hope for electing a President who has some concept of the proper role of government. Was he the be-all and end-all? Absolutely not. But he was head and shoulders better than any of the other possibilities…and it is MUCH more than just judicial nominations. The President wields the Veto pen and has the final say in what infringements the Congress gets away with. The President also has the bully pulpit from which to advocate the proper path for America…No President since Reagan has used that pulpit to any effect, but its power cannot be denied. And, finally, in setting the tone for the bureaucratic arms of government through executive orders and appointments, he has a huge influence on how those bureaucrats view and treat the population that they serve.
I don’t think Fred Thompson is the Messiah of the Government, but I do think that, other than Ron Paul (whom I have other issues with) he was the ONLY candidate that had ANY HOPE of getting our runaway government under any semblance of control. Also, support for him (as well as support for Paul) demonstrates to the Republican Party that there is significant discontent with the candidates they’ve been fielding. Virginia has been steadily slipping back into the hands of the Democrats over the past few years because the Republican party here is flat out so stupid it couldn’t pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the bottom. Did you hear about the spectacular demise of incumbent Jean Marie Devolitas-Davis? She was a REPUBLICAN…supported by the Republican party. She was also a freaking socialist and the Democrat candidate was more conservative than she was. What does that say for the Republican party of Virginia that they would support someone like that? She should have been booted out of the party, or at least not supported by it.
But I digress.
The minority of people left in this country who want nothing more than to be left alone and to take care of themselves as they see fit have no alternatives.
Too large a segment of the populace have become sheep. Too many want only to be cared for and tended and are more than willing to accept the bonds of slavery in attaining that goal.
There are many reasons for that but not insignificant was the GINORMOUS mistake we made in consigning our children to State Indoctrination in lieu of proper education. I cannot possibly express how huge a blunder that was. And it is a mistake that, at this point, cannot be undone. I guess I’m pretty disheartened and cynical at this point, but I fear it is simply too late to reverse the process. The train is out of control and is just going to keep on picking up speed. Our only hope at this point is that it crashes sooner rather than later to limit the damage done when it (inevitably) comes off the tracks.
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January 23rd, 2008 at 7:56 am
thanks Curt.
we’ve been blessed with a form of government that does not allow us the luxury of “left alone”, especially when you consider the nature of human beings (I’m not a believer in “basically good”, if you know what I mean). the range is from ‘for my own good’ to ‘outright screwed’, and only our individual participation and hard work will keep our liberty secure. we’re somewhere between choosing the lesser of two evils and watering the tree of Liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants. which way we go from here depends on how well we make those choices. I sincerely hope we never see the day of a “Patriots” or molon labe scenario.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
One interesting side effect of the government raising the minimum “average” fuel economy of the vehicles that a manufacturer produces is that to reach that average they have to increase the # of cars produced that consume less MPG than the required average as compared to the number of vehicles that exceed the required MPG. To do that, manufacturers raise the price of vehicles that consume gasoline at a MPG higher than the required average & use the extra income to subsidize the cost of the lower MPG vehicles, which makes the lower MPG vehicles less expensive so more people can buy them that used to use the bus system. The net result is that although the target average MPG is met by the manufacturer, we end up with an even larger amount of demand for oil due to the increase in the number of vehicles consuming gas both above & below the average MPG. Yet more evidence that humans do err, but it takes a government bureaucracy to really mess things up.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
‘The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ - Ronald Reagan
‘Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.’ - Ronald Reagan