E85 Boondoggle of the Day: Bill O'Reilly Preaches the Ethanol Gospel

by Robert Farago

June 9th, 2008 9:48 PM

e85 boondoggle of the day bill o reilly preaches the ethanol gospel

"If Brazil can do it, we can do it; it's as simple as that." Needless to say, Fox News' demagogue-in-chief Bill O'Reilly made this asinine assertion on energy independence while berating a couple of news blonds with his usual steam-roller-like tact, anti-intellectual insights and megalomaniacal aplomb. Ignoring differences in climate (Brazil's ethanol production is based on sugar cane), speaking over pictures of a Chevy FlexFuel Tahoe, Bill O told his acolytes (repeatedly) that we "have to get away from this oil-based economy." Why Brazil's just itching to rescue us from the oil thugs with cheap imported ethanol. But evil Congress is placing restrictive tariffs on our liquid salvation on behalf of… Big Oil. Sooooo close Mr. Bill (correct answer: the farm lobby). One of the news blonds almost dared challenge O'Reilly on the ethanol front– more energy in than out, dependence on oil to create it, deforestation, boondoggles, etc.– but didn't. Hey Bill. If you want a real fight on this issue, drop us a line.

Robert Farago

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4 of 44 comments

Landcrusher on Jun 11, 2008

One of the last times I watched O'reilly was about a year ago. He had on one of the financial guru's from one of Fox's financial shows. The guy was trying to explain to him about the oil companies and O'Reilly just refused to listen to him. He didn't care about the facts, only about making a stand for the little guy. It's not admirable, it's pathetic. It's like the luxury tax that the liberals put on yachts. They got almost no revenue, but destroyed all the nice boat companies and put their employees on the street.

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Landcrusher on Jun 11, 2008

golden2husky, I can tell you as a fact that the oil companies of today are better stewards of the land than either the general public, or the government. Before you yell rape, you should do some research. Start by going to a popular national park. Look for signs of damage. Then, go to some federal lands where there has been drilling, and the pump jacks or well heads are still on site. See how much harder it is to find the evidence the oil companies are there. Come back and share what you have learned with the group.

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97escort on Jun 11, 2008

I can't stand Fox News or Bill O'Reilly, but I wish RF or someone would tell us how we are to mitigate the decline in oil supply if we do not use ethanol. Are we all going to buy a new Prius? I don't think so. Ethanol is not perfect, but oil importers can not be choosers. Peak Oil is here. Get real. The car industry is on the ropes. Cut out ethanol and it's flat on its back. Oh wait, maybe that is what TTAC readers want.

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GS650G on Jun 11, 2008
Ethanol is not perfect, but oil importers can not be choosers. Peak Oil is here. Get real. Ethanol is not imperfect, it's insane to use it. And Peak Oil fears drives the 3rd axis of commodity price, speculation. The other 2 are demand and currency rates. By all rights we should be at 45 a barrel, reflecting consumption and supply. But the price of a barrel goes up when our dollar goes down because since 2004 oil has shifted to Euros instead of US dollars for the base price. Thanks Europe, the EU treaty was not in our best interests and the middle east figured out they could use it to hammer the US economy on energy price. The rest of the world used to see a huge increase in energy costs when the dollar went down, now not so much as before. Really the only solutions we have in the short term is to announce drilling and production domestically to push back the speculators and raise interest rates to get the dollar back up. But until we bail out the banks and delinquent home buyers they will keep the rate low. The Left should thank GWB, they always wanted high gas prices and work on alternatives to go forward and they are. It's funny to watch them rail about high gas prices when they wanted high gas prices for years to spurn development of windmill powered cars. I guess they have a problem with OPEC cashing in instead of the federal government, it's hard to spend gas taxes on useless s#it when Dubai is building Disneyland on the Persian Gulf.

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