'Feel-good' fuel is left's favorite snake oil
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Well, greenies, I hope you are proud of yourselves.
With the horrible, fantasy- driven "feel good" disconnect you have forced upon America and the world with your pie-in-the-sky dreams of saving the poor polar bears, which by the way, are at record-high populations, exploding gas and food prices are the direct result of the counterproductive scramble to clean the air and save the whales.
While continuing with the brain-dead, suicidal ban on any new drilling for oil or gas in America's untapped rich "independent" reserves, while demanding the development of the insanely wasteful ethanol biofuel, America bends over further and further into the hateful hands of our enemies.
Nicely done, lefties. No wonder you want to legalize dope. You are dopes.
The production of corn-based ethanol actually costs more in energy consumption per gallon than is realized per gallon of this "alternative."
Worse, the very same corn that is critical for the production of food for hundreds of millions of people around the world has been grossly wasted while artificially and unnecessarily driving up the cost of every commodity known to man.
Greenies, what in God's name were you thinking? Oh, that's right. It feels good because it sounds good. And that is all that matters.
Consequences be damned. Such an inconvenient truth.
The same gaggle of clueless Democrat and Republican senators who raised hell to create the ethanol hoax, including presidential candidate John McCain, recently urged the fantasy-driven Environmental Protection Agency to back off enforcement of their legislation to ramp up production of ethanol.
Agri-welfare brats are going nuts, I'm sure.
Even the terminal big government maniacs at Rolling Stone magazine and the ultra left New York Times have admitted how the entire ethanol joke is out of control.
Respected economist Walter Williams recently declared, "Politicians, farmers and ethanol producers know they are running a cruel hoax on the American public. They are in it for the money."
With the nanny state bloating at the hands of the liberal Congress, government subsidies at a rate of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol will end up costing tax payers a whopping $3.5 billion this year for the 7 billion gallons expected to be produced.
Corn is a grossly expensive crop to grow. It takes more than 1,700 gallons of water to grow enough corn to produce one gallon of ethanol.
This uniquely high water content of ethanol is dangerously corrosive to standard gasoline pipelines, so it must be delivered to all destinations by truck or rail, creating a ridiculously cost prohibitive overhead.
Once ethanol finally finds its way into our gas tank, that same water content can ruin engines, making it even more destructive.
Another disturbing little ditty to add to the ethanol scam. Even after ethanol subsidies have ravaged our pocketbooks, as fuel it is at least 20 percent to 30 percent less efficient than gasoline.
Based on laws pulled out of the dark, gloomy recesses of mindless bureaucrats, the United States is required to produce and we are forced to burn 36 billion gallons of this snake oil by the year 2022.
That is five times our current load of 7.5 billion gallons. With 33 new ethanol plants being built right now and 60 more up and coming, this runaway freight train is on a collision course from hell.
America is the fourth-largest exporter of rice in the world. U.S. farmers have more than 30 million acres in corn production this year, which means fewer acres for rice, beans, wheat and hay.
Economics 101 tells me that supply and demand will force prices up for all those commodities and dramatically reduce our exporting capabilities.
Can you say "lose-lose"? Who came up with this game plan, Willie Nelson or Michael Moore?
Ted Nugent is a Waco-based musician and television show host.
