Biden Mandates Increased Ethanol in Gas – Raises Corn Prices by 30 Percent

 

Smart. Burning your food to make “renewable” fuels that will raise the price of corn by 30 percent when there is a looming food shortage. Better, it will requirer more fertilizer which is in short supply and that price too is soaring. Best? Probably put smaller refineries out of business. And the coup de grace? Causes engine wear and damages your car. All this to force the issue of EV’s.

It is hard to think all this is not intentional. It’s odd that if EV was so great and everyone should be using them, why is the government so intent on (or even has to) coercing/forcing the public to move to EV by intentional destroying internal combustion any way they can. Meanwhile we sit on a boatload of fossils fuels that the world envies.

 

A fools game.

On Friday

Biden’s EPA Mandated the Most Ethanol Use Ever.

The EPA, after gathering comments since releasing it proposed blending requirements in December, said Friday it will require refiners to blend 20.77 billion gallons of ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable fuel this year.

Additionally, the oil industry must blend 250 million more gallons of renewable fuel, both this year and next, after a federal court found the Obama administration inappropriately reduced the 2016 blending requirements.

The agency also denied roughly 70 exemptions for small refineries, many of which had been granted under former President Donald Trump.

…..

Refiners Complain

But Chet Thompson, CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, said the blending requirement for this year is “contrary to the administration’s claims to be doing everything in their power to provide relief to consumers.”

“Unachievable mandates will needlessly raise fuel production costs and further threaten the viability of U.S. small refineries, both at the expense of consumers,” Thompson said.

….

Now we go into the old “market credits.” We wonder why the price of gasoline is so high? Maybe Peter Doocy could ask our White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about this. That would be a hoot.

The Wall Street Journal reported EPA Trims Ethanol Fuel Mandate for 2020-21 But Raises It for 2022

The Biden administration on Friday retroactively reduced the amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline for 2020 and 2021 but raised the level for 2022, saying the changes are aimed at helping boost domestic fuel supplies.

The agency can adjust these requirements retroactively, signaling to refiners how much they will have to spend to buy market credits that help them comply with obligations lingering from past years.

Both ethanol and corn prices have risen sharply, and cutting the 2022 mandate potentially could have lowered refiners’ business costs and led to lower prices at the pump, but likely by only a few cents a gallon, said analysts at research and consulting firm Rapidan Energy Group LLC.

Let’s get rid of the smaller refineries. Transportation Secretary Butt Boy complains about the big companies running things:

South Jersey refinery says cost-mandated fuel credits threaten its survival

New Jersey lawmakers waded into a long-running battle by independent oil refiners for reform of a federal mandate that the companies say is costing them millions of dollars and threatening their survival.

Both the Senate and Assembly unanimously passed a resolution urging President Joe Biden and the Environmental Protection Agency to allow waivers to the Renewable Fuels Standard that would ease financial pressure on refiners such as Parsippany-based PBF Energy which employs about 225 people at a facility in Paulsboro.

To comply with the standard, PBF and other refiners who are unable to blend biofuels such as ethanol with gasoline and diesel are required instead to buy credits called Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, that have recently surged in price because they are traded on the open market.

Prices for the credits jumped to a record high of almost $2 in June from only 10 cents at the start of 2020, the resolution said. They are now the second-largest expense for refiners like PBF, after crude oil. The document noted that 800 million fewer credits were issued last year than were needed to meet the 2020 standard.

The burden of the credits is worsened, the independent refiners say, by the fact that they buy them from larger competitors who have the technical ability to blend biofuels, and so earn the credits that they can then sell to the smaller companies. That amounts to the smaller companies effectively subsidizing their competitors, they say. Source

And our farmland?

Millions of acres are being pointlessly sacrificed just to grow corn to fuel gas-guzzling SUVs,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Meanwhile the EPA looks the other way as our ocean dead zones grow, water pollution worsens, and endangered species suffer.”

Expanded ethanol production under federal mandates raised corn prices by 30% and the prices of other crops by 20%, according to a report published earlier this year in the National Academy of SciencesThe report also said growing more corn for ethanol led to increased amounts of water pollutants from U.S. farms and negated ethanol’s climate benefits.

The Biden administration announced it will suspend a federal rule that bars higher levels of ethanol in gasoline during the summertime. The move is intended to lower fuel prices. However, that decision is to authorize year-round use of E15 or 15% ethanol.

Now the best part not to be missed.

 

EPA to Expand E15 Ethanol Fuel – Is Ethanol Bad For Your Car’s Engine?

 

 

 

A comment left:

My car SPECIFICALLY states NOT to use Ethanol fuel because it will damage the aluminum block. Almost every car’s block is corroded but ethanol and so extensively damaged by E-15 that the life of the vehicle is reduced by 60-75% so, a life of 5-7 years not 15-25 years. I smell a rat.

 

Read more at Zero Hedge

Bonus time for laughs and giggles:

Biden ‘Let’s burn our food source corn for our cars’

Biden never disappoints. The world sits on edge of a possible famine with much of Ukraine unable to plant this year. Fertilizer is in short supply. Bright bulb Joe comes up with this. What fool burns their food supply?

The price of corn has spiked from a low of $3.08 a bushel in August 2020 to $7.69 in April 2022.

The European Union imports more than half of its corn from Ukraine and is already buying more American corn.

Fertilizer prices have skyrocketed as much as 300 percent since early 2021. Thanks in large part to the sky rocketing cost of Natural gas. Thank you Joe Biden.

But Biden talks about using more American corn as fuel for vehicles could help reduce gas prices.

Better yet, ethanol will cause more pollution.

We have been down the ethanol road before with the Obama Biden team in 2011. They were all for making food inflation skyrocket back in the day. At the time there was concern over the harm ethanol would do to older cars. Even then, Obama and team defied court orders.

EPA defies court order- increases ethanol mandate

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to raise the maximum amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline for vehicles manufactured since 2007.

According to people with knowledge of the announcement, the EPA may say as soon as Wednesday that the newer vehicles are able to handle 15 percent ethanol, up from the current maximum of 10 percent for the corn-based fuel.

But the auto industry, environmentalists and a broad coalition of other groups have argued against an increase and called for more testing.

Opponents argue that the increase in production of corn and its diversion into ethanol is making animal feed more expensive, raising prices at the grocery store and tearing up the land.

Manufacturers of smaller engines – used in everything from lawn mowers to boats – also oppose increasing the use of the fuel, saying those engines are not designed for the higher concentrations.

Then there is this Lahood: ‘We are going to coerce people out of their cars – apparently after they destroy our cars or make them prohibitively expensive to drive.

A few flashbacks:

Ethanol Now Consumes More Corn Than For Animal Feed for First Time, Corn Prices Reach Record High

Financial Times —  “U.S. ethanol refiners are consuming more domestic corn than
livestock and poultry farmers for the first time, underscoring how a
government-supported biofuels industry has contributed to surging grain
demand.
 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that in the year to August 31 ethanol producers will
have consumed 5.05 billion bushels of corn, or more than 40% of last year’s
harvest. Animal feed and residual demand accounted for 5 billion bushels.”

Meanwhile, we proceed to destroy the world’s food supply: Robert Bryce writing in the Washington Examiner:

“Today, about 40 percent of all U.S. corn — that’s 15 percent of global corn production or 5 percent of all global grain — is diverted into the corn ethanol scam in order to produce the energy equivalent of about 0.6 percent of global oil needs. 

And recent harsh weather, including floods in the Midwest and drought in the South, will likely mean a subpar U.S. corn harvest. That, in turn, will mean yet higher prices for corn, which will translate into higher prices for meat, milk, eggs, cheese and other commodities.

“Livestock producers, restaurants, food manufacturers and consumers at the grocery store are all being penalized by this profligate biofuel policy,” said Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, an Omaha, Neb., commodity consulting firm.”

This includes the increased global demand for fertilizer outpacing production, pandemic-related and weather-related supply chain disruptions and increases in production costs, which includes soaring prices of natural gas required for making inputs. 

Finally-

Let’s not forget to include what the efforts of Biden to shut down our energy output has done as well.

High natural gas prices could lead to spike in food costs through fertilizer link

Global fertilizer prices soared to multi-year highs in the past few months following surge in prices of key feedstocks natural gas and coal, and certain export restrictions put in place by supplying countries.

Around the globe, natural gas is used as a raw material as well as fuel for nitrogen fertilizer production. In some countries such as China, coal is gasified into ammonia and used for manufacturing fertilizers.

Nitrogen fertilizers are the most used fertilizers in the world. Ammonia, phosphorous and potash are the other important fertilizer components.

According to the European crop nutrient company Yara Fertilizers, in several of their transformation steps, natural gas, essentially methane, is upgraded by combination with nitrogen from the air to form nitrogen fertilizer.

“While 80% of the gas is used as feedstock for fertilizer, 20% is used for heating the process and producing electricity,” according to Yara.

Unsurprisingly, when natural gas prices rose, prices of nitrogen fertilizers also shot up. In fact, prices of nitrogen—as anhydrous ammonia, urea, or liquid nitrogen, phosphorus as diammonium phosphate, or DAP, and potassium as potash—all gained significantly over the past year.

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EPA defies court order- increases ethanol mandate

Totally lawless. Totally. We knew it was coming. Was this Lisa Jackson’s swan song as going out the door. We can only hope the court imposes consequences. Anarchy begins. This blend can be only used in cars 2002 and newer and harms smaller engines such as lawn mowers.  Americans can go to H*ll as far as this President is concerned. And corn prices skyrocket.

Officials at the Renewable Fuels Association, representing the ethanol industry, said ethanol fuels can be safely used in old cars if owners adapt the fuel systems with new parts. Thanks a bunch guys!

Just one week after a federal court rebuked the Environmental Protection Agency for mandating biofuel standards based on “wishful thinking,” the EPA responded by raising those standards to even more unattainable levels.

The EPA called for refiners and importers to mix 14 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels (ethanol) into fuel in 2013. “EPA calculates a percentage-based standard for the following year,” the agency explained in an announcement today. “Based on the standard, each refiner and importer determines the minimum volume of renewable fuel that it must ensure is used in its transportation fuel.”

This projection ignores last week’s ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down a rule requiring gasoline blenders to use 8.65 million gallons of the cellulosic biofuel because the mandate “was based on wishful thinking rather than realistic estimates of what could be achieved,” as The New York Times explained. Per Consumer Energy Report notes, the fuel isn’t commercially available.

The judges faulted the EPA for effectively saying, “Do a good job, cellulosic fuel producers. If you fail, we’ll fine your customers.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., faulted the EPA for ignoring last week’s ruling. “The EPA continues to make up unicorn-like standards in this area of renewable fuels production, as emphasized by last week’s appellate court ruling,” Vitter said in a statement this afternoon. “Increasing the standard after their 2012 requirements were vacated is beyond ludicrous, and they continue to force refiners to either purchase even more gallons of product that doesn’t exist or pay a fine.” Washington Examiner

From am earlier post Recall this? EPA expected to OK more ethanol ? It will destroy many older engines.

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to raise the maximum amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline for vehicles manufactured since 2007.

According to people with knowledge of the announcement, the EPA may say as soon as Wednesday that the newer vehicles are able to handle 15 percent ethanol, up from the current maximum of 10 percent for the corn-based fuel.

But the auto industry, environmentalists and a broad coalition of other groups have argued against an increase and called for more testing.

Opponents argue that the increase in production of corn and its diversion into ethanol is making animal feed more expensive, raising prices at the grocery store and tearing up the land.

Manufacturers of smaller engines – used in everything from lawn mowers to boats – also oppose increasing the use of the fuel, saying those engines are not designed for the higher concentrations.

Then there is this Lahood: ‘We are going to coerce people out of their cars – apparently after they destroy our cars or make them prohibitively expensive to drive.

New Ethanol Blends moving forward – Corn prices skyrocket

Earlier, it was reported that grants were being given out to install new gas pumps so we had the “option” of purchasing the 15% Ethanol blend. Today, it looks like they are going ahead without the pumps. Many States do not require posting the blend  on the pump, so here is one we we want to keep our eye on. So is the intention to destroy our engines? What sane person burns their food supply? Now 40% of our corn supply is going to this scam.

Earlier from  Gas Stations to get grants so we can burn our food

HaywardEconBlog:

What a way to start the day. I sit down with a nice cup of coffee and this gem pops out from the WSJ….Grants and subsidized loans to install new gas pumps so we can sell gasoline that has even more ethanol (E-85)  which everyone, but the ethanol lobby, believes is bad policy…How was this NOT low hanging budget fruit subject to cutting in the budget battle that went deep into the night?

The Secretary of Agriculture declined to say how much the program would cost because he did not know how many station owners (or oil companies) would take advantage of the program…Fair enough, I get that. But a better question for him from would have been how much has been budgeted for such a program.  THAT he should know.  Wish the reporter had asked that. OR better yet, a budget-cutting ELECTED official…Just sayin’…

I caught this story today in USA Today:

Officials at the Renewable Fuels Association, representing the ethanol industry, said ethanol fuels can be safely used in old cars if owners adapt the fuel systems with new parts. Thanks a bunch guys!

This year, the EPA approved allowing even more ethanol — a 15 percent mix. That proposal upset automakers and small-engine companies, who said that at 15 percent ethanol even newer cars and newer small engines would be damaged.

“We’re basing our concerns on the cars that are on the road today,” and on the corrosive effect that 15 percent-ethanol fuel could have on fuel pumps, fuel tanks, hoses and emissions parts, said Gloria Bergquist, vice president of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group that includes the Detroit Three automakers and other manufacturers, including Toyota and Volkswagen. The alliance, along with other trade groups, sued the EPA in January to stop the introduction of E15.

Small-engine manufacturers are concerned about the effects on boat motors, chain saws and lawn mowers. Despite the lawsuit, the EPA approved the sale of E15, with labels, for vehicles made in model year 2001 and later.

Federal regulators leave it to the states to decide whether pumps must be labeled disclosing that they dispense fuel blended with E10 . About a dozen states don’t require ethanol labeling on gas pumps.

Association spokesman Matt Hartwig said the cost would “be minor in comparison to what (owners) would be willing to spend on the exterior of the car, for example.”  Thanks again guys. How do you know? USA Today

Meanwhile, we proceed to destory the world’s food supply: Robert Bryce writing in today’s Washington Examiner:
 
“Today, about 40 percent of all U.S. corn — that’s 15 percent of global corn production or 5 percent of all global grain — is diverted into the corn ethanol scam in order to produce the energy equivalent of about 0.6 percent of global oil needs. 
Corn prices, now close to $7 per bushel, have more than doubled over the past two years (see chart above). And recent harsh weather, including floods in the Midwest and drought in the South, will likely mean a subpar U.S. corn harvest. That, in turn, will mean yet higher prices for corn, which will translate into higher prices for meat, milk, eggs, cheese and other commodities.
“Livestock producers, restaurants, food manufacturers and consumers at the grocery store are all being penalized by this profligate biofuel policy,” said Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, an Omaha, Neb., commodity consulting firm.” Carpe Diem

Ethanol Now Consumes More Corn Than For Animal Feed for First Time, Corn Prices Reach Record High

What fool country ever burned up its food supply? Anyone think this will not cause tremendous inflationary pressure on almost all that we eat? Both meat and grains are affected, we are burning our food for no purpose. This will cause tremendous suffering world-wide and cause untold  misery for those who can barely pay to feed themselves now. Massive dislocation. For shame, Obama. For shame Congress not to think of others. If you want to fool yourselves and think you are doing something for climate change,  you are a nuts. You are condemning much of  the third world to massive starvation. But then again, you like riots. It helps you to get to your destination.
Financial Times —  “U.S. ethanol refiners are consuming more domestic corn than
livestock and poultry farmers for the first time, underscoring how a
government-supported biofuels industry has contributed to surging grain
demand.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that in the year to August 31 ethanol producers will
have consumed 5.05 billion bushels of corn, or more than 40% of last year’s
harvest. Animal feed and residual demand accounted for 5 billion bushels.”

Al Gore Says He Supported ‘Not Good’ Ethanol Policies To Help His Presidential Ambitions

Al, … you started this juggernaut and now regrets? Meanwhile the EPA marches on to increase the amount of Ethanol in our Vehicles to 15% blend for newer cars. This when it is claimed it will damage our cars and environment. But that is what you and the Car Czar want. The end to the Combustion Engine.

Al Gore said this weekend that tax breaks for corn-based ethanol are “not good policy” and that he only supported these subsidies in order to assist his eventual run for president. Reuters Africa reported Monday the former Vice President made these comments while speaking to a green energy conference in Athens.

“It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for first generation ethanol,” said Gore. According to the International Energy Industry, such subsidies totaled $7.7 billion last year. Yet Gore now thinks this was a mistake.  “The energy conversion ratios are at best very small. It’s hard once such a program is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going,” he said.

Readers are reminded that Gore was the tie-breaking vote in the Senate mandating the use of ethanol in 1994.

It was love that made me do it

“One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.”

Read more: More at Newsbusters

Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce that it will raise the limit on the amount of ethanol fuel refiners can blend into gasoline, allowing ethanol levels in gasoline blends to be as high as 15% in vehicles made since 2007, up from 10% currently. Though seen as a win for corn ethanol lobby groups like Growth Energy, the new ethanol blends, known as E15, come with serious risks for our engines, wildlife, water, and the air we all breathe.

broad coalition of environmentalists, public health advocates, livestock ranchers, and automakers have long opposed EPA’s move, calling on Congress and the administration to follow the science and conduct more thorough testing of the impacts of higher ethanol blends on air pollution before approving E15 gasoline. These groups have pointed to serious environmental and public health concerns around the tailpipe emissions of vehicles that run on gasoline blended with ethanol. Burning ethanol can cause toxic air pollutants to be emitted from vehicle tailpipes, especially at higher blend levels like E15. The chemistry is fairly straightforward: ethanol burns hotter than gasoline, causing catalytic converters to break down faster. Cars with broken tailpipe controls are disproportionally responsible for air pollution from vehicles.  More at Switchboard

EPA Expected to OK More Ethanol in Gas

Our new method of travel

Our new method of travel

Looks like the EPA is at it again. So now the next step is that we will not be able to get fuel for older vehicles and motors? I noticed that the price of corn has been on a rocket ride…. great… food prices will explode, engines will be destroyed.. everything on track for Zero. See our earlier story:

Lahood: ‘We are going to coerce people out of their cars

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to raise the maximum amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline for vehicles manufactured since 2007.

According to people with knowledge of the announcement, the EPA may say as soon as Wednesday that the newer vehicles are able to handle 15 percent ethanol, up from the current maximum of 10 percent for the corn-based fuel.

But the auto industry, environmentalists and a broad coalition of other groups have argued against an increase and called for more testing.

Opponents argue that the increase in production of corn and its diversion into ethanol is making animal feed more expensive, raising prices at the grocery store and tearing up the land.

Manufacturers of smaller engines – used in everything from lawn mowers to boats – also oppose increasing the use of the fuel, saying those engines are not designed for the higher concentrations.

More at CNBC