Industry takes aim at AP ethanol investigation

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

WASHINGTON (AP) - A new Associated Press investigation, which found that ethanol hasn't lived up to some of the government's clean-energy promises, is drawing a fierce response from the ethanol industry.

In an unusual campaign, ethanol producers, corn growers and its lobbying and public relations firms have criticized and sought to alter the story, which was released to some outlets earlier and is being published online and in newspapers Tuesday.

Their efforts, which began one week before the AP project was being published and broadcast, included distributing fill-in-the-blank letters to newspapers editors that call the AP's report "rife with errors." Industry officials emailed newspapers and other media, referring to the AP's report as a "smear," "hatchet job" and "more dumpster fire than journalism."

"We find it to be just flabbergasting. There is probably more truth in this week's National Enquirer than AP's story," said Geoff Cooper, vice president of research and analysis for the Renewable Fuels Association in a press call with reporters Monday criticizing the investigation.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131112/DAA0TCE83.html

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In this July 26, 2013, photo, a motorist fills up with gasoline containing ethanol in Des Moines. When President George W. Bush signed a law in 2007 requiring oil companies to add billions of gallons of ethanol to their gasoline each year, he predicted it would make the country "stronger, cleaner and more secure." But the ethanol era has proven far more damaging to the environment than politicians promised and much worse than the government admits today. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

[Berlum]

1. Ethanol = another GMO Mutant, Inc. Republican Corporate Socialism racket

[truthisfreedom]

2. Ethanol is a waste of good food.

Once again, a waste of resources. We need to stop burning EVERYTHING.

[Omaha Steve]

4. Ethanol doesn't stop corn from being used as food etc

Ethanol uses starch, not protein from corn etc. Once the starch is removed, the protein mash is fed to livestock, used for HUMAN food, etc. Let us kill that right wing crap here and now.

OS

[eggplant]

15. Ethanol corn grows in fields that would otherwise be growing corn for human consumption. n/t

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Hey, that won't be popular

with the Drill, Baby, Drill crowd

But I do agree with you

Passive solar with active supplements is the way to go

[sendero]

3. Ethanol..

... a way to make you pay $3.00 a gallon for something with the fuel value of about $1.50.

There is a gas station that sells real non-ethanol gasoline near my home and I use it EXCLUSIVELY. I get 2-3 miles per gallon more than using the watered-down 10% ethanol version.

If people really understood how they are being scammed the whole thing would end. That's why they have to go on the offensive when anyone points it out.

[James48]

6. I use only E85 fuel

and purchase it at about 25% less than gasoline. It works just fine for me.

I fully support ethanol as an alternative renewable fuel.

[eggplant]

16. Yep, it's cheaper, but you get fewer miles per gallon.

http://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/e85-vs-gasoline-comparison-test.html

[Omaha Steve]

9. hhhmmmm

In Nebraska because of the refineries the only choice for non-ethanol gas is premium. I've been burning 10% ethanol since the 70's. I lose 3-4 % on my mileage. I save over 10% on the cost for a cleaner fuel. It also acts as antifreeze in the fuel line, is cleaner burning, ....

[sybylla]

13. I'm with you Omaha Steve

Even at 10% I prefer it to supporting big oil 100% of the freaking time. I'm constantly amazed by the opposition. It's so easy for big oil to play on people's fears and suspicions. I don't see a 3-4% loss in fuel economy. I do see a savings in not having to purchase gasline antifreeze all winter, which is just putting alcohol in my gas anyway. Like we've done in the cold parts of this country for half a century. It's no different, yet some rail endlessly as if this were a new thing to do.

And I like that there is no waste - my BIL's farm can use the mash to feed his cows.

I appreciate your efforts to put the truth on the table. Even if no one is eating it.

Thanks.

[sendero]

19. Nobody is ...

... "playing on my fears". Ethanol takes so much energy to produce it is not a viable solution. I am happy I found a way to avoid playing the game and paying for a product that is substandard and actually has no benefit to anyone other than big agribusiness.

If you think big ag is any better than big oil I have a bridge to sell you.

[reddread]

5. a GIANT scam

should be obvious to anyone who sees just who is investing in it.
politically connected pols.

[Historic NY]

8. Plain & simple its sucks..........

the money out of your wallet.

[underpants]

10. Boats - a thread from 2 days ago

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024010490

[Omaha Steve]

12. Nebraska, Iowa, and several other states went E-only Sept 16th

Read any stories about mass break downs because of it????? The only non-E gas is premium. I've used E-10 since the 70's. Some people really listen to the oil company propaganda!

http://www.ufcoopblog.com/category/energy/

The Magellan and NuStar Pipelines that service the upper Midwest including Nebraska have announced the discontinuation of the 87 Octane Unleaded Gasoline effective September 16, 2013. It will be replaced with an 84 Octane Unleaded Gasoline that will require blending with 10% ethanol to allow it to meet the 87 octane minimum needed by gasoline engines. Common carrier refined fuels pipelines in the eastern, southeastern and western parts of the United States have already made this transition.Why is there a move to the Sub Octane Unleaded Gasoline? The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a federal program that requires transportation fuel sold in the US to contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels (i.e. ethanol and biodiesel). The RFS originated with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and was expanded and extended by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). The RFS program requires renewable fuel to be blended into transportation fuel in increasing amounts each year, escalating to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

The volume of ethanol sold in the United States is now approximately 10% of the total gasoline sales. The Renewable Fuels Standard effectively requires refiners to increase the volumes of renewable fuels. Refining a gasoline that needs blending with ethanol to be a legal road fuel facilitates the move of ethanol blended gasoline usage towards the mandated obligation.

The downside for some consumers is that an 87 Octane Gasoline that contains no ethanol may not be available. Concern by users of older equipment (for wheelers, lawnmowers and two cycle engines) is that an E-10 product will cause damage to their engines...**************************************************************

found this on the blog for my hometowns cooperative... first I've heard of this happening in Nebraska. The Iowa story made the news, but this september deadline for Nebraska is news to me. Will be currious how this effects ethanol use here in Nebraska. I know that our regular gas (e0) will be much more as they will be blending with premium to get it up to 87 octane, so e85 spreads will "look" larger.

[One_Life_To_Give]

17. Bertram's Lifetime fuel tanks

E-10 broke down the resin whereupon it flowed into the engines and destroyed them. Yamaha outboards require a 10 micron filter to be added with the use of E-10. Otherwise it results in plugging of the fuel injection filter.

[hobbit709]

11. If they have nothing to hide...

[hatrack]

14. Well then file a libel suit, or shut the fuck up

Instead, press releases and whining. Unimpressive.

[DallasNE]

18. AP Report Used Kids Gloves In Report

It is the demands of ethanol that are the force behind GMO grains. Also, the byproduct of extracting the alcohol from GMO altered corn is fed to livestock, introducing GMO into the food chain for human consumption.

(T)he ethanol industry disputed AP's findings that as farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land and destroyed habitat. The industry said the primary driver for such losses was Congress lowering the number acres allowed in conservation, not ethanol.

But it was the ethanol industry that lobbied Congress to lower the number of acres allowed in conservation. A simple geometry theorem says "things equal to the same thing are equal to each other" so this statement has no standing.

Also think of the consequences of the price of corn falling. Lowering the cost of livestock food would result in an increase in livestock which in turn would lower the price of livestock, bringing back into balance the cost-price structure of supply and demand. Some of those acres would be planted with other crops, driving down the price of those costs as well and that would ripple through the economy as well while some of the now cheaper corn would be exported overseas.

Lastly, there would be no ethanol industry without the tax subsidies that allows the 10% ethanol blend to be sold for 10 cents a gallon less than regular gasoline (at least in the mid-west). By definition that is socialism. Myself, I would like to see many of these tax subsidies reassigned to clean, alternate energy such as solar and wind.

[Omaha Steve]

20. I get 34+ MPG

In my 09 Chevy Cobalt at 75 mph on 10% ethanol.

[Nye Bevan]

21. The ethanol boondoggle pushes up global food prices and causes people to starve.

And it exists largely because the Iowa caucuses are the first round of the primaries.