Renewable Fuel Standard

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I wrote this in another thread, but at this point it's probably deserving of a separate thread:

Bumping this.

Everyone has probably seen that "Mr. Slick and Dummy" commercial that's been making its rounds on the airwaves recently.  Eager to learn more, I went to their website and found some statistics that run contrary to the study that Torie posted.  For one, a World Bank study found that high fuel prices are the cause of higher food prices.  Additionally, a study by the University of Wisconsin and Iowa State University found that gasoline would have been an average of $1.09 higher in 2011 without ethanol.  As of August 2013, wholesale ethanol prices were 41 cents less expensive than gasoline.

I'm not really taking a side here, but I'm curious to know what our RFS skeptics make of this.  There's nothing I hate more than "professionally-conducted" studies that totally contradict each other.

And, yes, I know I'm taking the thread completely off subject now.

The contrarian study that Torie posted, by the way, can be found here.

[Link]

The contrarian study that Torie posted, by the way, can be found here.

All I saw posted in Torie's quote was one chart.  I skimmed the study but the dire proclamations Torie made about global hunger weren't in the parts I read.  The fact of the matter is there is more than enough food produced on this planet.  The issue is one of maldistribution.  I don't know why one would single out ethanol.  The majority of Americans are over weight or obese and the federal government is still PAYING farmers not to grow food.  So how ethanol is the boogey man with all that going on I don't know.



Not sure how banning GM flexfuel cars is going to fix that.  It's going to take one heck of a "study" to explain that one to me.



Thanks Obama!

[Linus Van Pelt]

That ethanol subsidies increase global food prices, and thus contribute to food insecurity in poor countries, has been a staple theme of the FAO, Oxfam, and other international development organizations for years. Why is this supposed to be a contrarian claim?

I don't understand your claim about the World Bank study you link to. It states that increases in crude oil prices are responsible for over 50% of post-2004 food price increases, while changing stock-to-use ratios are responsible for about 15% of the increases. A major factor in changing stock-to-use ratios is diversion of crops to biofuel. So this, I would think, supports Torie's claim rather than contradicting it, unless Torie was claiming (which I don't see) that the increase in food price caused ethanol was greater than that caused by rising crude oil prices.

[Link]

I believe the article Torie posted was referring to US commodity prices not global prices.  I just don't see how dropping the price of corn in the US is going to prevent food from rotting in India.

[barfbag]

I'd like to see us subsidize biofuels and hydrogen cars but other than that we have a lot of debt to pay off first. Things like this are very expensive. Right now the best way to conserve energy is to provide tax incentives for renewable energy and renovate schools into being green schools. More than anything I'd like to see us criminalize OPEC with all the wrong they've done. In today's world it's too risky to be dependent on foreign oil. I support some arctic drilling in ANWR for economic and security reasons, but no subsidization of it or oil refineries. It's up to all of us whether Democrat or Republican to protect our Earth. We can't always side with capitalism and we can't always side with politicized science. There's a lot of Marcellus Shale in the region I'm from. What would that do for us?



Tap into Marcellus Shale.
No Climate Tax.
Comprehensive energy policy should nuclear energy and clean coal.
Voluntary partnerships to reduce greenhouse gases economically.
Kyoto treaty must include other nations before we make a decision.
Allow for drilling in ANWR on only 19,000 acres, but no subsidies or new oil refineries.   
Reduce oil usage by 5% each decade with renewable energy tax incentives.
Continue federal funding for 100,000 hydrogen powered cars each decade until they're common.
Hold funding and subsidies for renewable and solar energy until our budget is balanced.
Allow for nuclear waste repositories.
Enforce limits on CO2 pollution.
Provide tax incentives for renewable energy, energy production, and conservation.
Invest in homegrown biofuel.
Criminalize oil cartels like OPEC.
Keep moratorium for drilling offshore.
No permits for new oil refineries.
Extend renewable energy tax credit through 2018.