Renewable fuels mandate is about ethanol mostly, and farmers are on the horns of a dilemma. Farmer war is one way to look at it.
Ranchers and livestock/feedlot farmers versus the guys with 200,000 dollar tractors with 4 big wheels and lots of row crops–owners of the ultimate boy toys.
At the hearing on the renewable fuels discussed in the link below farmers deal with the conflict that is now many years old. Rich row crop guys are not about to let the mandates and subsidies go away and go back to the food and feed market price for corn.
If you are a row crop farmer, bring on the ethanol subsidies, you’ll plow up the front yard and irrigate to get more production.
If you raise chickens or pigs or cattle–the corn price, now 100% or more higher than it was, is a killer, on your competitiveness for fed cattle production, definitely for pigs and chicken for slaughter or eggs.
The Fat Cattle/pig/chicken businesses are dependent on feed. Goats are a pasture thing, but feed makes a difference in the other areas of animal food sources. Corn is even important for fish farms.
Corn is a staple, ethanol goes away into the fuel sector to harm food supplies and it’s such a pathetic politically driven idea. Gas is more energetic, and per mile traveled produces less carbon dioxide. If Iowa wasn’t an early primary state and if Archer Daniels and the farmers didn’t have so much lobbying impact, ethanol would be as popular as the Hoola Hoop. Ethanol production needs subsidies and still falls short, but the cost of food for the world is up, and up some more.
http://quincyjournal.com/farm-agriculture/2013/12/9528/epa-gets-earful-on-rfs-proposal/
Ethenol is being subsidized in multiple ways: The federal government as well as some states are using tax money to subsidize the cost of producing ethenol and then when it is blended into gasoline it is being “subsidized” by the remaining gasoline because most cars’ gas mileage — especially in-town, stop and go driving — will drop by a greater percentage than the percentage of ethenol that is blended into the gasoline.
Ethenol is just as big of a loser as Uncle Simple.
They need to kill the whole alcohol fuel mandate. It is vary unfair to people who need alcohol free fuel. Like people with older boats and cars and even airplanes and chain saws. The damage in this area is very extensive. They need to make fuel available without alcohol at some stations to accommodate these peoples needs instead of trying to force alcohol fuel down everybody’s throat as a result of this mandate
The Jack-asses that just had to have corn ethanol introduced into the fuel supply were warned and told many of the problems that would occur at the time this was done. Nevertheless, because of their religion of Environmentalism, they went ahead and did it anyway. After all, who needs a good reason when ideology will give you all the control you want over peoples lives.