Comments on: E85 Boondoggle of the Day: Bailouts for Ethanol Plants

By: jawguard

jawguard — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:19:14 +0000

One solution is a flex-fuel mandate on all new cars sold in the U.S. (there is a proposal in Congress for this already called the Open Fuel Standards Act S.3303).

But even going the Libertarian route by removing government subsidies and bailouts for ethanol (assuming all tax subsidies and bailouts are also removed), ethanol production and usage is still the right thing to do. This is as long as the U.S. is willing to 1) accurately and completely account for the hidden costs of the oil-based status quo, 2) open our markets to foreign producers, 3) encourage farmers and ethanol producers to adopt perma-culture in their various processes, 4) use less fuel, and 5) drive cars that can efficiently use ethanol.

By: Mark in Texas

Mark in Texas — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:19:24 +0000

Why is it that so many alleged car enthusiasts are so down on the idea of 95 octane E10 or 105 octane E85? I would personally like to see high octane ethanol mixes become the standard auto fuel in the US so that Detroit would tune their engines to be optimized for this fuel.

By the gray hair in your photo, Mr.Chen, I assume that you are old enough to remember when unleaded fuel was mandated in the early 1970s how it dropped the octane and substantially lowered performance and mileage. We have the opportunity to turn that around if ethanol survives and remains part of the fuel mix. I don’t understand why you would be opposed to higher performance engines getting better mileage and producing less polluting exhaust.

By: Michael Ayoub

Michael Ayoub — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:53:56 +0000

This is a waste of time. Ethanol isn’t the answer.

By: jkross22

jkross22 — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:50:35 +0000

I thought the price of corn was only supposed to go up. Damn supply and demand rules!

Can I get $25m loan now?

By: OldandSlow

OldandSlow — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:07:18 +0000

Isn’t the Ethanol industry already subsidized, hence partly socialized by the US taxpayer? Would there be all these ethanol plants if they didn’t already receive government subsidies?

By: GS650G

GS650G — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:01:01 +0000

When you see “too big/important/vital for this industry to fail” you are witnessing real socialism in action. Make no mistake, the plan is to nationalize as many pieces of business as possible.

Look for a National Office of Corn Production Czar soon!