Agrofuels are to oil and autos what filters were to cigarettes
by George SeldesDecember 14th, 2007 at 21:52:05
Nothing but a way for corporations to appear to be responding to the concerns (the climate crisis and the looming peak oil problem for Big Oil and the carmakers, the Surgeon General’s report for Big Tobacco) without changing a goddamned thing or letting go of a single dollar.
Just like Madison Ave. and Big Tobacco cobbled together filters to create the fiction of a safer cigarette, the point of agrofuels is to keep the house of cards together a few more years so that many more billions can be bilked out of a brutalized public eager to hear that buying different cars and/or different fuels is the solution for keeping the American Way of Life (TM) going, with a chicken in every pot and car keys in every pocket!
Just like the Tobacco Institute fought to keep people from quitting smokes, GM and the Oil companies are willing to do anything and say anything to keep people from making the switch away from the private auto–so they are delighted to boost agrofuels like ethanol and biodiesel because they know how trivial the maximum potential supply of these are, and how they are very effective at keeping people chained to the oil pipeline.
Just like Big Tobacco has a customer for life when the kid starts smoking at 15, GM and Exxon (and Toyota and PB, and Honda and Chevron, etc. etc.) don’t give a rip about your dreams of weaning off gas made from oil, because once you own that car you are theirs for years, because a gas-engine car is a very expensive, very stupid paperweight without fuel, and so they know you’ll be buying plenty of their product, no matter how much or how often the Congress tries to legislate pi=3.0 with “renewable fuel” mandates.
Why, here’s an interesting list, from Ethanol Producer magazine: the ethanol plants under construction as of 12/5/07. Notice anything missing? Where’s are all those wonderful fantastic groovy save-the-world and fight halitosis cellulosic ethanol plants we here so much about?
Oh, hmmmm, not there — well, there must be plenty in operation already then. Here’s the current plants list from the same date:
Abengoa Bioenergy Corporation York NE Corn 55 1 Abengoa Bioenergy Corporation Colwich KS Milo / Corn 25 December 2002 Abengoa Bioenergy of Ravenna Ravenna NE corn 88 spring 2007 Adkins Energy LLC Lena IL Corn 43 August 2002 Agri-Energy LLC Luverne MN Corn 21 February 1999 Amaizing Energy LLC Denison IA Corn 55 September 2005 Andersons Clymers Ethanol LLC, The Clymers IN Corn 110 N/A Archer Daniels Midland Marshall MN Corn ^ N/A Archer Daniels Midland Cedar Rapids IA Corn ^ N/A Archer Daniels Midland Decatur IL Corn 1100 ^ N/A Aventine Renewable Energy Inc. Pekin IL Corn 160 1981 Big River Resources LLC West Burlington IA Corn 52 April 2004 Bonanza BioEnergy LLC Garden City KS corn/milo 55 October 2007 Cargill Inc. Blair NE Corn 85 N/A Central Indiana Ethanol LLC Marion IN corn 40 March 2007 Chief Ethanol Fuels Inc. Hastings NE Corn 62 1985 Commonwealth Agri-Energy LLC Hopkinsville KY Corn 33 March 2004 Corn Plus LLLP Winnebago MN Corn 44 November 1994 Dakota Ethanol LLC Wentworth SD Corn 50 2001 DENCO LLC Morris MN Corn 24 September 1999 E3 BioFuels LLC Mead NE corn 25 December 2006 Elkhorn Valley Ethanol LLC Norfolk NE Corn 40 N/A Front Range Energy LLC Windsor CO Corn 40 May 2006 Glacial Lakes Energy LLC Watertown SD Corn 50 N/A Golden Grain Energy LLC Mason City IA Corn 80 December 2004 Grain Processing Corp. Washington IN Corn 20 N/A Granite Falls Energy LLC Granite Falls MN Corn 50 November 2005 Hawkeye Renewables Iowa Falls IA Corn 100 November 2004 Heartland Corn Products Winthrop MN Corn 95 N/A Heartland Grain Fuels LP Huron SD Corn 30 November 1999 Husker Ag LLC Plainview NE Corn 27 March 2003 Illinois River Energy LLC Rochelle IL Corn 50 November 2006 KAAPA Ethanol LLC Minden NE Corn 40 November 2003 Lincolnland Agri-Energy LLC Robinson IL Corn 45 July 2004 Little Sioux Corn Processors LP Marcus IA Corn 52 April 2003 Merrick/Coors Golden CO Beverage Waste 3 N/A MGP Ingredients Inc. Pekin IL Corn / Wheat Starch 78 February 1980 Midwest Grain Processors LLC Riga MI Corn 57 February 2007 Midwest Renewable Energy LLC Sutherland NE Corn 25 N/A Nebraska Energy LLC Aurora NE Corn 50 1995 North Country Ethanol LLC Rosholt SD Corn 20 March 2005 Parallel Products Rancho Cucamonga CA Beverage Waste 4 N/A Permeate Refining Inc. Hopkinton IA Sugars & Starches 1.5 N/A Pinal Energy LLC Maricopa AZ Corn 55 N/A Poet Biorefining-Ashton Ashton IA Corn 55 March 2004 Poet Biorefining-Bingham Lake Bingham Lake MN Corn 30 1997 Poet Biorefining-Chancellor Chancellor SD Corn 50 March 2003 Poet Biorefining-Corning Corning IA corn 60 May 2006 Poet Biorefining-Glenville East Albert Lea MN Corn 45 1999 Poet Biorefining-Groton Groton SD Corn 50 May 2003 Poet Biorefining-Hudson Hudson SD Corn 55 May 2004 Poet Biorefining-Laddonia Laddonia MO Corn 45 N/A Poet Biorefining-Macon Macon MO Corn 36 2000 Poet Biorefining-Portland Portland IN corn 60 N/A Poet Research Center Scotland SD Corn 9 1988 Quad County Corn Processors Galva IA Corn 25 February 2002 Redfield Energy LLC Redfield SD corn 50 December 2006 Siouxland Energy & Livestock Co-op Sioux Center IA Corn 25 N/A Standard Ethanol Madrid LLC Madrid NE Corn 44 N/A Sun Energy LLC Walsh CO corn 3 N/A Trenton Agri Products LLC Trenton NE Corn / Milo 40 March 2004 U.S. Bio Ord Ord NE Corn 45 N/A U.S. Bio Woodbury Lake Odessa MI corn 50 September 2006 United Ethanol LLC Milton WI corn 42 January 2007 Utica Energy LLC Utica WI Corn 52 April 2003 VeraSun Charles City LLC Charles City IA corn 110 April 2007 VeraSun Fort Dodge LLC Fort Dodge IA Corn 110 September 2005 Western Plains Energy LLC Oakley KS Corn / Milo 45 January 2004 Wyoming Ethanol LLC Torrington WY Corn 12 N/A Yuma Ethanol LLC Yuma CO corn 50 N/A
But, but . . . it’s nothing but mountains of CORN. Subsidized as corn, subsidized again by the feds, protected from mean old Brazilian cane ethanol with import duties, and then subsidized again by Oregon, which is going to be heading deep into painful recession in 2008.
Ever wonder why we’re going to get LNG plants rammed down our throats? In no small part it’s because a bunch of those plants above burn natural gas to boil the mash to distill the tiny percentage of alcohol out of it — the ones that aren’t burning coal.
But of course, you can conclude that I’m just a nattering nabob of negativism, insufficiently attuned to the wondrous positive energy that flows between beings when they put all their negative thoughts aside and open themselves to the wonders of technology that is going to save us just any day now.
Or you could read further and think for yourself and recognize that, once again, environmentalists have gone into the tank and helped GM and Exxon realize their wildest fantasies–an energy bill that does NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING other than guarantee greater starvation for the poor, higher prices for food globally, and add even more fuel to the climate fire.
December 15th, 2007 at 10:03 am
While you’re picking tobacco out of your teeth, ponder how the vile tone of this rant is like your famous ‘OLCV and George Bush’ blog, and that maybe some positive energy would be a good thing.
Unfortunately, the mountains of corn you’re referring to is field corn, and not digestable by humans.
I find you’re insistence that future technology won’t happen amusing. Only your criticism is stuck in the past.
December 15th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
But the land the corn is grown on is capable of growing food that _is_ digestible by humans, and with far less petroleum inputs required than for corn.
As for whether future technology will happen, isn’t that irrelevant to subsidies that are paying out TODAY, raising the price of food TODAY, contributing to climate change TODAY, expanding the Gulf of Mexico dead zone TODAY?
In fact, if you’re hanging your hat on future technology then the last thing you want to do is encourage the status quo by making it so profitable. If you bothered to follow the link you would have found a good article pointing out how subsidies, once established, perpetuate themselves and the subsidized activity. In other words, the corn ethanol subsidies are helping PREVENT any improvements by rewarding the present destructive practices.
Vile is putting food for people into competition with first-world gas tanks. You can try to attack the messenger all you want, but it’s people supporting agro-fuels who are making the immoral choice.
December 15th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Well, it’s the tactics of the messenger I question. The energy bill article noted that Big Oil balked at the Biofuel clause, perfectly happy they were not. Auto mileage will be going up, public transportation will mature, electric cars will catch on, voluntary conservation will increase, and suddenly Big Oil will find itself with greatly reduced profits. Biofuels will be the undoing of Big Oil when alternative transportation proliferates and suddenly a few billion gallons of biodiesel is a major chunk of the fuel pie.