Let’s choose the fuel for our cars and the bioproducts that we want to use in our bodies. It’s called freedom.
Congress ordered that oil refiners mix ethanol into gasoline supplies to cut CO2 emissions in 2007. This was one of the most stupid and selfish acts of public policy. Blending ethanol with gasoline causes more emissions because it is less efficient, which means more pain for motorists. It also makes refining more costly and more difficult. This all happens during the worst energy crisis and food shortage in recent history.
Our government is engaged in controlled demolition to curb our independence, prosperity, and freedom. The EPA has now announced that it will tighten the biofuels mandate.
The EPA proposed an increase in renewable fuel standards. This would require refiners to blend 20.82 trillion gallons of biofuels including ethanol beginning in 2023. In 2025, the mandate would increase to 22.68 million gallons. The RFS was created by Congress in 2005. It only established levels for 2022. The EPA will now set its own levels. Republicans should end the horrible ethanol mandate at this time.
People are welcome to dilute their fuel if they wish. Why should consumers and refiners be forced to use the equivalent of a face mask on scarce fuel? Officials are trying to end American automobile travel with the ethanol mandate as well as the electric vehicle fuel miles mandates. Both ideas have enjoyed the support of Republicans for many years. It is a shame that Republicans, in a time of high fuel costs, have not pledged to end these counterproductive mandates.
Although ethanol was originally mandated by Congress to reduce CO2 emissions, it actually increases CO2. An earlier study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that corn-based fuel ethanol is at least 24% more environmentally-friendly than pure gasoline due to the land required for its production and processing. If carbon dioxide really is the enemy, which is a questionable notion, how can global warming advocates justify reducing our fuel efficiency in this energy crisis?
We are also taking 10% of all food produced and turning it into fuel sources in times of food shortage. One Reuters columnist pointed out that “according to Gro Intelligence the calories diverted for biofuel production from current policy and future commitments is equivalent to the annual need of 1.9 billion people.” The total biofuel production was 155 billion liters in 2021. Europe alone has converted 5 billion bread loaves worth of wheat into biofuels.
We’ve been wasting taxpayer money, land, and food for years in order to destroy refining jobs and increase the cost of food. This is all to enrich a small group of lobbyists. The government is trying to use ethanol to charge electric vehicles, rather than reducing ethanol mandates due to lower gasoline demand (thanks to the electric vehicle boondoggle). The new EPA rule aims to integrate biomass into the electricity grid. Now we have unreliable power sources for cars that use unreliable electricity.
They first said they didn’t want people to drive gasoline cars. They are now showing us that electric vehicles are a ruse to eliminate the freedom of driving an automobile. Electricity is becoming more scarce than gasoline because of the green energy agenda. This is why Switzerland has put limits on electric vehicle use. As in the story of the scorpion and the frog, they have subsidized wind, solar and electric vehicles. Now, however, they must deal with the electricity and natural resources shortages that make electric cars less practical than gasoline vehicles. They want a carless society.
World Economic Forum calls for end to private car ownership
Source: Fox Business (Youtube) pic.twitter.com/PosKaxHE1m— Wittgenstein (@backtolife_2023) December 10, 2022
Conservatives must stop promoting the belief that “all of it” is the best approach to energy policy. We need to adopt an “all that works” approach. This means we will only seek out sources that do not require subsidies or mandates to support them. It’s fine if electric vehicles, wind, and solar can be independent in a free market. If they are unable to last after years and years of endless subsidies, and mandates, they should be allowed to perish before our freedom is lost.
