Oil Profiteering
The latest from David Sirota:
According to a new study today by the Consumer Federation of America, gas prices could be reduced by 8 cents a gallon if oil companies used lower-priced ethanol as a fuel additive rather than higher-priced petroleum ingredients. But as the Kansas City Star reports, the report notes that "oil companies are keeping gas supplies tight and prices high even though ethanol is plentiful and available at prices that have dropped 40 cents a gallon or more since the beginning of the year."Related to this is the reluctance of either Democrats or Republicans -- beholden as they are to Big Oil and Big Auto -- to embrace higher auto fuel efficiency standards. But having the freedom to drive a Hummer2 is worth a few foreign wars and melting glaciers, no?
Why would the oil companies resist using ethanol? Because the Bush administration refuses to force them to use ethanol, and, in the absence of a serious government mandate, they can continue price gouging Americans and raking in record-breaking profits.
2 Comments:
Corn-based ethanol is a complete scam- nothing but a huge wasteful subsidy for corn farmers- it takes WAY more energy to produce the corn to produce the ethanol than the ethanol produces and trashes the environment in the process- we need higher CAFE standards and an end to ALL resource subsidies (so that we can free up resources for public-funded R&D)- please don't fall for the PR from the ethanol lobby.
J.S.
http://voicesofreason.info
I do like your site and articles, but I agree with the previous poster about ethanol being a scam. Go look at the midwest and you'll see that it's one big field of beans and corn. Since ethanol is corn-based, it's bad for the environment (because corn has to be grown on what was once prarieland). The midwest's ecosystem is a disaster. The fact is automobiles use lots of oil. The production of automobiles uses huge amounts of resources. I don't see much difference between a prius and a hummer. The world has passed its peaked oil production. It's all downhill from here.
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