Early in his campaign, now top-tier Republican presidential candidate, Ben Carson, supported ethanol—a position for which I called him out. It has long been thought, that to win in Iowa, a candidate must support ethanol.
However, in a major policy reversal, Carson told a national audience during the CNBC GOP debate that he no longer supports subsidies for any industry, including U.S. ethanol producers: “I have studied that issue in great detail and what I’ve concluded, the best policy is to get rid of all government subsidies and get the government out of our lives and let people rise and fall based on how good they are.”
The ethanol industry shot back immediately, saying it receives no government subsidies. But it neglected to mention a very important fact. Instead of subsidies, ethanol producers get something better: a mandate that orders refiners to blend ethanol into motor fuels which forces consumers to buy their product. A federally guaranteed market beats a subsidy every time.
Go pound ethanol up your own cornhole, not mine.
I stand with him on this issue. Right on.
Other issues though, Ben ahh…not so much.
Leave ethanol alone! And the EWG is evil beyond words. They put out a report of what every farmer received from subsidies and they lied when reporting the money. It had a farmer getting a million dollars when the truth was $950,000 was from grain loans which the farmer pays back at principal plus interest. $ 50,000 from subsidies.
I guess he is evolving on this issue.
Ethanol subsidies is one of the biggest scams going. It was initiated to get otherwise conservative voters hooked on the government tit. And now it is the third rail of politics in the corn belt. It needs to stop. And don’t even get me started on the damage it does to engines.
I’ve lost a few friend because of methane.
I’m not a fan of Carson as a presidential candidate, but I sure do love that quote. Government needs to stop playing favorites, stop giving money to any person or company outside of purchasing goods or services (still plenty of opportunity for theft there too of course), and let businesses and organizations succeed or fail on their own capabilities.
Ethanol as a fuel for autos is one big SUCK.
It takes more hydrocarbons to produce per available car useable BTU than gasoline (oil is used for the fertilzer, planting/harvesting, processing, transport)
Ethanol damages your fuel system (really bad in older cars).
Ethanol has fewer BTUs per gallon than gasoline – which means your car’s efficiency is lower when ethanol is mixed with the gasoline.
The available farmland is taken away from growing FOOD for both you and livestock. Soooooo wheat and corn products, milk, eggs, and meat are more expensive.
try beano, my friend’s wife swears by it
Wait what? For you I’m assuming?
Win win for the “fundamentally transform America” crowd
Good. Between high fructose corn syrup and ethanol the corn lobby needs to take a hike.
Yes and not only that, but it takes two to three times the energy consumption to convert grain into one gallon of ethanol than that of the energy that it produces vs oil. The math ain’t hard there.
“The available farmland is taken away from growing FOOD for both you and livestock. Soooooo wheat and corn products, milk, eggs, and meat are more expensive.”
What?? You dont have a clue what you’re talking about. The price of corn is half what it was couple years ago. So how is ethanol making food prices more expensive? Livestock dont eat just corn. Try hay, grass and cooked soybeans. And the last 6 or so years petroleum oil has gone from $32 barrel to $140 barrel.
George Booch supported the use of ethanol in fuel. That’s enough to make it suspect. If I remember correctly, the oil companies got paid for every gallon of ethanol used due to perceived dilution of their “market share”.
The price of oil is artificially influenced as is the price of corn and other farm products.
Get the government out of the business of deciding who succeeds and level the playing field for all. We are not a nation of capitalists, that is a Lenin word, we are free market entrepreneurs. Government control of prices is a Socialist thing.
Guess price guarantees matter most to those whose ox is being gored.
Burning your food supply is not smart, no matter who’s “ox is getting gored”