E85 Boondoggle of the Day: What's IowaNext?
KCRG-TV reports that the Iowa legislature is getting ready to roll out the pork barrel for the ethanol industry. Previewing the Tall Corn State's upcoming legislative agenda, the TV station foreshadows the tax breaks to come, and makes it seem as if there's a passel of pistonhead demand for E85, motorists just itching for a local E85 station. "Lawmakers also expect to talk about ways to make it easier for drivers to pump ethanol into their vehicles. 'There's tens of thousands of vehicles in Iowa right now that could run on E85, but they really don't have access to the infrastructure where they can go buy it,' Rep. Kraig Paulsen (R) said." Could or would? (We sure as Hell don't recommend Iowans try and find one of 69 state stations with an E85 pump via Iowacorn.org's "E85 finder;" the Adobe player crashes your browser.) Iowa already pays 50 percent of the total cost of an E85 pump. Question: if one of the nation's top E85 producing states– a state without large ethanol transportation expenses (E85 can't go down a standard gas pipe)– needs more subsidies to convince gas stations to provide E85 pumps, what does that tell you?
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10 years from people are going to be asking "what were they thinking?" At least ANWR and the continetal shelf are safe from those evil oil companies that provide us with fuel now.
Yeah, they can launch space shuttles, missiles, and rockets at a National Wildlife Refuge (Merritt Island NWR) but cannot drill for oil and gas on one. Drilling rigs are temporary. NASA is permanent, more or less.
The Ethanol thing is quickly getting out of control.
I like the first comment about something like the Soviets would have done. I mean, not only is corn ethanol a bad way to harvest energy, but I wouldn't put that stuff in my tank any more than I'd raise my kid on junk food. If they had gas stations with zero ethanol, I'd pay a premium for that. But the notion that ANWR could be anything more than a little blip in the oil supply is just as nonsensical.