scrap nation's current ethanol standard

[Bryanccfshr]

http://planetbp.bpweb.bp.com/article.asp?id=8277

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Bush seeks to scrap nation's current ethanol standard

By Tom Doggett, Reuters
Friday, March 23, 2007


WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has proposed scrapping the current US renewable fuels standard that requires ethanol use to reach 6.8 billion gallons a year in 2010 in favor of a wider alternative fuels requirement aiming to cut America's foreign oil dependence.

Under the legislative proposal sent to Congress, the new standard would require US ethanol and alternative fuel consumption to reach 10 billion gallons in 2010.

The alternative fuels standard would then slowly rise through 2014, and ramp up the following three years to reach 35 billion gallons annually in 2017.

The 35 billion gallon goal is part of the Bush administration's plan to reduce projected 2017 gasoline consumption by 20 percent.

The administration's plan "holds the promise of changing this trend, diversifying the sources, types, and volumes of fuels we use and reducing our nation's vulnerability to supply disruption," said US Energy Secretary Sam Bodman and Environmental Protection Agency head Stephen Johnson in a joint letter that accompanied the draft bill sent on Monday to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

In addition to ethanol, alternative fuels under the bill would include biodiesel and motor fuel made from municipal solid waste, natural gas, hydrogen, coal-derived liquid fuels, electricity and other fuels to be determined by the Energy Department.

The draft legislation calls for a credit, banking and trading program to encourage alternative fuel production.

The bill authorizes the federal government to sell compliance credits, which are weighted for their energy or BTU content, to make sure the program does not impose unreasonable costs on consumers, Bodman and Johnson said.

Identification numbers would be assigned to each batch of alternative fuel that is produced or imported. The numbers would be used by the obligated parties to demonstrate they are meeting the new fuel standard, or transferred to other parties that are not in compliance.

Many energy experts question whether Bush's plan is feasible and doubt the United States will make the scientific breakthroughs necessary to produce affordable cellulosic ethanol that is made from agricultural and farm wastes. Most U.S. fuel ethanol is now made from higher-priced corn.

Still, Bush promoted his plan on when he toured a General Motors Corp. plant in Kansas and a Ford Motor Co. facility in Missouri that make vehicles that run on limited alternative fuels.

"That technology is coming. It may be far-fetched to some," Bush said in a speech following his tour. "I think it's achievable," he said.

Use of this article is permitted under license from Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (Factiva).

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[oilyriser]

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The draft legislation calls for a credit, banking and trading program to encourage alternative fuel production.

The bill authorizes the federal government to sell compliance credits, which are weighted for their energy or BTU content, to make sure the program does not impose unreasonable costs on consumers, Bodman and Johnson said.

Identification numbers would be assigned to each batch of alternative fuel that is produced or imported. The numbers would be used by the obligated parties to demonstrate they are meeting the new fuel standard, or transferred to other parties that are not in compliance.

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Compliance credits, identification numbers, BTU, banking, trading, disrecombobulation parameters, alliterative allegorical avatars, reinstatement deveopment discreditaions, etc. etc.


The real energy waste is all the talented, intelligent people who's minds are wasted on red tape like this. And then there's the income tax system...

If things were made more simple, thousands of lawyers, and accountants would lose their jobs, and then we'd have enough free brain power to solve the problem.

 

[Bryanccfshr]

LOL, I agree. The only thing Bureaucracy does well is create more bureaucracy.

 

[Texas Aggie]

I agree with both of you, however, this does sound better than an ethanol only policy. It allows other ideas to compete.

 

[oilyriser]

Changing just one rule would be an easier way to approach the goal: Import tarriff on crude oil. When gas prices rise, it fires up the creativity in people, and they get inventive. That's how problems are solved in the free market system.

But it would put beaurocrats out of their jobs. boo hoo.

 

[oilyriser]

just had another thought...

It's like cigarettes. If you want people to stop smoking, do you subsidize lollypops? No, you tax cigarettes.

So, to reduce imported oil, you tax imported instead of subsidizing pet projects.

 

[ewetho]

To reduce imported oil you just those lawmakers to ignore the tree huggers to allow drilling of our own oil and then go get it. Allow the building of a refinery or 3 and you'd do much better.

Let the market decide. Taxing cigarettes is the only way to get people to quit a legal product. They ought to just outlaw it and call it a day.

 

[Merkurwwu]

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Still, Bush promoted his plan on when he toured a General Motors Corp. plant in Kansas and a Ford Motor Co. facility in Missouri that make vehicles that run on limited alternative fuels.

"That technology is coming. It may be far-fetched to some," Bush said in a speech following his tour. "I think it's achievable," he said.

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"I THINK ITS ACHIEVABLE!?!??" I was riding propane-fueled school busses in the early 90's! Talk about an out-of-touch baffoon. Honda sells the natural gas Civic with a home-hookup to your gas line to refuel at home! Maybe, just MAYBE it's achievable...

Does anybody else wonder if his speech writers make him look like an idiot for fun? Are they sitting back there saying, "I'll give you $50 if you put that in the speech and he says it!"

 

[obbop]

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I agree with both of you, however, this does sound better than an ethanol only policy. It allows other ideas to compete.

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I concur.

 

[Steve S]

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To reduce imported oil you just those lawmakers to ignore the tree huggers to allow drilling of our own oil and then go get it. Allow the building of a refinery or 3 and you'd do much better.

Let the market decide. Taxing cigarettes is the only way to get people to quit a legal product. They ought to just outlaw it and call it a day.

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The government likes the money.

 

[MC5W20]

The true buffons are the ones who can't understand what Bush is saying. They try to slam on him, it makes them feel better because they aren't smart enough themselves to see the bigger picture.

 

[Merkurwwu]

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The true buffons are the ones who can't understand what Bush is saying. They try to slam on him, it makes them feel better because they aren't smart enough themselves to see the bigger picture.

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Ok. If you're so smart and I'm so stupid. What about this technology and quote from the president is so revolutionary that it is far fetched and only possibly achievable? *Here's me seeing the bigger picture* Considering the technology has been around for 20 years, the infrastructure for many of the alternatives is already available, and the auto companies already know how to meet emissions standards with alternative fuels, why then is this only possibly achievable and why is he not an idiot for making that statement?

 

[beanoil]

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Still, Bush promoted his plan on when he toured a General Motors Corp. plant in Kansas and a Ford Motor Co. facility in Missouri that make vehicles that run on limited alternative fuels.

"That technology is coming. It may be far-fetched to some," Bush said in a speech following his tour. "I think it's achievable," he said.

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"I THINK ITS ACHIEVABLE!?!??" I was riding propane-fueled school busses in the early 90's! Talk about an out-of-touch baffoon. Honda sells the natural gas Civic with a home-hookup to your gas line to refuel at home! Maybe, just MAYBE it's achievable...

Does anybody else wonder if his speech writers make him look like an idiot for fun? Are they sitting back there saying, "I'll give you $50 if you put that in the speech and he says it!"

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merkurwwu,
You hit that nail directly on the head. I suggest you visit a library, or one of the on-line book stores and get Iacocca's "Where Have all the Leaders Gone? I predict you'll have as much fun reading it as I am.

 

[obbop]

Whether you are a good, bad or average prez, the babes flock to you!!!!

 

[oilyriser]

I'm not sure who's doing the flocking here...

 

[jazztrumpet216]

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Still, Bush promoted his plan on when he toured a General Motors Corp. plant in Kansas and a Ford Motor Co. facility in Missouri that make vehicles that run on limited alternative fuels.

"That technology is coming. It may be far-fetched to some," Bush said in a speech following his tour. "I think it's achievable," he said.

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"I THINK ITS ACHIEVABLE!?!??" I was riding propane-fueled school busses in the early 90's! Talk about an out-of-touch baffoon. Honda sells the natural gas Civic with a home-hookup to your gas line to refuel at home! Maybe, just MAYBE it's achievable...

Does anybody else wonder if his speech writers make him look like an idiot for fun? Are they sitting back there saying, "I'll give you $50 if you put that in the speech and he says it!"

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Correct me if I am wrong, but propane and natural gas are both still petroleum products. They just burn cleaner. This thread is about the US Renewable Fuels Standard, and neither of those is a renewable fuel.

This discussion is completely useless as long as people can't see through their political bias.

 

[Bamaro]

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To reduce imported oil you just those lawmakers to ignore the tree huggers to allow drilling of our own oil and then go get it. Allow the building of a refinery or 3 and you'd do much better.

Let the market decide. Taxing cigarettes is the only way to get people to quit a legal product. They ought to just outlaw it and call it a day.

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Any additional domestic supply would be short lived. And who is stopping the building of new refineries?
The only real solution is to use less hydrocarbon based fuels.

 

[XS650]

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To reduce imported oil you just those lawmakers to ignore the tree huggers to allow drilling of our own oil and then go get it. Allow the building of a refinery or 3 and you'd do much better.

Let the market decide. ....

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Any additional domestic supply would be short lived. And who is stopping the building of new refineries?
The only real solution is to use less hydrocarbon based fuels.

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I agree. I also prefer using up the Arab's oil first while we slowly bumble along looking for other energy sources.

The oil in our reserves will be much more valuable to our county 30 or 40 years from now than it is now.

Bush occasionally says something reasonable. Not restricting the alternative energy market incentives to the corn industry is a big step in the right direction.

 

[XS650]

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Any additional domestic supply would be short lived. And who is stopping the building of new refineries?
The only real solution is to use less hydrocarbon based fuels.

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There are at least two reasons for not building new refineries.

If the existing refineries can't keep up it creates a shortage and prices go up. The oil companies may actually make more money than if they had enough capacity to have honest competition.

Oil production is going to peak sometime. The oil companies not building new refineries indicates that they believe it's going to peak before new refineries would pay for their selves.