America's ethanol boondoggle increases

Nation's ethanol boondoggle increases

I have written previously about ethanol and the fact that its use in our vehicles causes more harm than any possible benefits claimed.

You won't find a credible person anywhere outside of the ethanol and corn industries who can cite logical evidence supporting ethanol continuing to be blended with our gasoline. Well, except for those we elect from both parties to run our nation and whose campaigns have been heavily supported by these two industries, and whose livelihood also depends on the continuing perpetration of this fraud on our country.

To make matters worse, with our current administration's support, the Environmental Protection Agency last year approved boosting the amount of ethanol in gasoline by 50 percent, from 10 percent to 15 percent. It's a move that cannot in any way be defended as being in our citizens' best interest and is simply a continuation of our politicians' pandering to the corn and ethanol industries.

Plans call for the higher ethanol content fuel to only be allowed in light cars and trucks built after 2000. It will not be allowed for small engines such as lawn mowers, motorcycles, etc., or even in heavy-duty engines because it will damage their parts even worse than the 10 percent mix currently being sold.

The corn and ethanol lobbies, and their politicians, always tout the twin benefits of reducing dependence on foreign oil and reducing pollution. They conveniently ignore the use of oil-based fertilizers to grow the corn, oil-based fuel required for farm implements to plant and harvest the corn, oil-based fuel used to truck the corn to the ethanol production facilities, and finally oil-based fuel used to truck the finished ethanol to the oil refineries so it can be blended with gasoline.

Oh yeah, the reason for trucking the finished ethanol instead of transporting it by pipeline is because ethanol is too corrosive to safely ship via pipelines. It's this basic corrosive nature of the product that makes it unsafe for use in smaller engines and why many believe it is potentially harmful to any vehicle's engine. Interestingly, many of the world's largest auto manufacturers have declared that their warranties will be voided if ethanol at this higher concentration (E-15) is used in their vehicles.

Ethanol, when used as fuel, is not pollution free, and when you add ethanol pollution to the oil-based products used in the entire corn growing and manufacturing process, the overall pollution generated is greater than would have occurred with just using oil-based fuel in our vehicles in the first place. So we end up with a product that has been created by two industries, in conjunction with their paid puppets in D.C., in order to fill their own pockets. Its use neither reduces foreign oil dependence or overall pollution.

If you aren't persuaded yet, then also consider that the artificially expanded demand for corn to produce ethanol has resulted in higher prices for all food grains. Corn prices have skyrocketed due to the new demand created by ethanol. This has increased acreage planted in corn instead of other grains.

This has caused all grain-based food prices to increase. In fact, grain-based food prices have increased globally, which in turn, has not only harmed American pocketbooks but has also caused immense harm to the people in the poorest nations in the world who are forced to survive on mainly grain-based diets.

So let's summarize: Our elected leaders used our money to subsidize two industries to create a new market for a product that has increased pollution, not reduced our nation's oil dependence, raised our food prices and potentially will harm our vehicles. And now they have approved adding even more of this harmful substance to our gasoline!

Our leaders will once again tout the benefits of reducing foreign oil dependence and reducing air pollution. In fact, did you notice President Barack Obama recently vigorously stating his concerns about global warming? Any chance this is a precursor for him to publicly support expanding the ethanol fraud?

If we remain silent, we deserve to be treated like the fools these industries and our elected leaders clearly think we are.

These are my opinions. What do you think?

Mike Tower l

mike41tower@gmail.com