What Stinks Worse? Ethanol or Sean Penn?
It’s difficult to say whether ethanol or Sean Penn smells worse. It’s all dependent on your olfactory, political, and occupational sensibilities.
If you’re an American consumer of crude oil, which category would incorporate everyone who drives, consumes produce and manufactured products delivered via road and rail, wards off frigid cold with #2 heating oil in your homes, or labors in a factory/office kept functioning thanks to semi-liquid gold, you may say that ethanol takes the stink prize.
If you cook with corn oil, use masa harina, or just love tortillas, ethanol should beat Sean Penn in the stink run by at least a mile since the brainstorm of conservationists and numbnuts at the EPA which inspired the idea of converting a valuable food staple, corn, into ethyl alcohol biofuel and blending up to 10% of the stuff into gasoline has sent the price of corn into the stratosphere.
And, notice what it’s done for gas prices!
Ostensibly re-introduced, (after Henry Ford gave up on the idea almost a century ago), to curb America’s dependence on foreign oil imports, another government failure, ethanol has evolved into a typical, wasteful boondoggle. It serves to enrich farm states and has made major political capital for pols in those states while helping to impoverish those needing gasoline to survive and those dependent on corn to eat.
A remarkably slow-learner in our un-scientific survey on whether ethanol or Sean Penn stink more, the Hollywood star would be the sure winner among those who appreciate second-rate acting and off-camera demonstrations of total ignorance.
As noted here in an earlier article, “BiofuelsWatch.com has enumerated the numerous negatives associated with ethanol production and use. They include the explosive danger, (it’s more flammable than gasoline), its solvent, drying, and water-absorbent properties which can lead to engine contamination and the disintegration of rubber and plastic, its lower energy value, its irritant and cancer-causing potential, its greater expense, and, primarily, its effect on food production.” (http://bit.ly/kwcHWa)
As an added ironic fillip to the ethanol controversy, in the face of Republican efforts to put an end to federal subsidies promoting increased ethanol production by decreasing food production, the United States Department of Agriculture added a dumb insult to serious injury by announcing a push for more “flex-fuel [ethanol] pumps” at filling stations. (http://bit.ly/m0NtHb)
There’s nothing quite like enhancing the ridiculous with the totally absurd. Maybe Mexicanos and Taco Bell can learn to substitute feather grass for maize.
Sean Penn, who makes Ben Affleck and Charlie Sheen look smart, is notable as an admirer of Cuba’s Castros, hater of George W, Bush, defender of the LGBT, and savior of New Orleans and Haiti,. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4803)
Showing posts with label ethanol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ethanol. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Ethanol: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Corn Bread?
Ethanol: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Corn Bread?
Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) biofuel, aka booze when it’s purified, bottled and sold in liquor stores, has been the greatest boon to some farmers and some states since the inventions of tractors and porta-potties. To everyone else, it’s been a bust.
The blending of up to 10% ethanol with gasoline, now mandated in a number of states and localities, was a government brainchild ostensibly begun in the interests of reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil imports. It has developed into a typical, wasteful boondoggle which is enriching farm states and farmers who raise corn, potatoes, and sugar cane and gaining big political points with politicians at the same time it’s helping to impoverish those needing gasoline to survive.
Alcohol as a motor vehicle fuel is hardly a new idea. Henry Ford built his Ford Model-T’s to run on it, or on gas, or on a mixture. Alcohol as a widespread biofuel, however, is very much a modern concept and very much the product of the less than supple minds of environmentalists, conservationists, and the good people at the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA. As is so often the case when government gets involved in anything, bureaucrats are unable to factor in either obvious or unintended consequences. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4124)
Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) biofuel, aka booze when it’s purified, bottled and sold in liquor stores, has been the greatest boon to some farmers and some states since the inventions of tractors and porta-potties. To everyone else, it’s been a bust.
The blending of up to 10% ethanol with gasoline, now mandated in a number of states and localities, was a government brainchild ostensibly begun in the interests of reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil imports. It has developed into a typical, wasteful boondoggle which is enriching farm states and farmers who raise corn, potatoes, and sugar cane and gaining big political points with politicians at the same time it’s helping to impoverish those needing gasoline to survive.
Alcohol as a motor vehicle fuel is hardly a new idea. Henry Ford built his Ford Model-T’s to run on it, or on gas, or on a mixture. Alcohol as a widespread biofuel, however, is very much a modern concept and very much the product of the less than supple minds of environmentalists, conservationists, and the good people at the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA. As is so often the case when government gets involved in anything, bureaucrats are unable to factor in either obvious or unintended consequences. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4124)
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