Ethanol has been very costly to me and it seems I’m in good company but the politicians just want to worsen the problem
http://www.fuel-testers.com/petition_e15.html
If 10% ethanol wasn’t so bad just go to 15% and see who complains. If it’s just US simple minded people who work for a living and cut our own grass who complain D.C. will force states to mandate more ethanol and that will be 15% year round it seems.
“Washington” pays attention to whoever speaks the loudest with “donations”, otherwise known as bribes.
Until you, and I, and others can come up with enough money to compete with the bribes paid by the corn/ethanol lobby, our voices will not be heard.
Locally here in SW Florida, non-ethanol fuel is readily available. Wawa’s, and Racetrack to name 2 have 87 octane non-ethanol fuel at their pumps. Boaters and lawn service companies like this.
States apparently have their own opinions and laws about ethanol laced fuels;
So does Washington listen? Yes, and no. Depends on whether you’re from Iowa or Florida I guess. If 51% of the legislators want E15, then we get E15.
If your local legislators are listening to boaters, lawn services and old car enthusiasts, then actual E0 gasoline will be available. Getting people to USE it instead or E10 or E15, well, that’s another matter.
As expected the ethanol situation is another political shell game that seems to always make the public lose.
oil companies are ‘incentivized’ to sell ethanol and if they don’t they pay for it anyway.
Ah yes, the golden rule…
This is pretty close to going over the line but don’t forget the impact of the “Administrative State”. These are the career unelected leading the uninformed elected. Their careers depend on certain decisions.
More and more we find government giving US parades of Munchkins walking through a hall of mirrors wearing 10 gallon hats and far too many of US seem impressed by the phony show. The original Mustang’s image of power and performance was phony. The pony car was just a Falcon with a long hood and short deck with a wheezy 6 cylinder 1bbl and for all the pomp and circumstance out of D.C. Americans get relatively less in results than promised but we limp away allowing ourselves to be cheated over and over. I occasionally write my congressman voicing my objections to programs that affect me and all I get back are form letters with my name and a few strategically placed words relating to my letter inserted. How many people read such trash and feel that anyone is paying any attention?
Oh well. It’s nice outside and hopefully my chainsaw will start. With any luck I’ll be able to trim back some trees before the leaves fall off and fill my gutters.
Of course they pay attention to us in Washington. Until the election is over.
You can have an opinion if you want, even an uninformed one like this. The only people in DC that want to increase ethanol content in gasoline are appointed officials or elected officials from corn country. Other elected officials are willing to vote for increased ethanol content in gasoline so they can get a return favor when their pet legislation comes up. Career government workers have no stake in increasing ethanol content. It has nothing to do with their pay or whether they keep their jobs. If they don’t benefit from it in any way, why would they make an effort to increase ethanol content?
Our statesmen are much too concerned with short term popularity, especially from the deep pockets that support them, to give more than rhetoric and dog and pony shows to the people who actually work for a living and pay taxes. Ethanol was a political scheme from the beginning
I agree. Corn farmers weren’t making enough money and needed another outlet for their corn. They lobbied their elected representatives to use ethanol as a fuel additive. Where I live, it replaced MTBE. You probably remember that MTBE poisons ground water and takes a very long time to break down. The up to 10% ethanol we use is fine with me because it helps clean up the environment. The corn farmers also got E85 capable cars and trucks built and the fuel in some geographic areas. Not mine, but I hear there is a lot of it available in the Midwest. Now they want national legislators to enact more laws to force E15 on us so that they can expand their farming and processing businesses. I’m not in favor of it. It will lower my fuel mileage and IMO will cost me more to run the car because of that. I’m not at all in favor of it and would like to know how this benefits the consumer before we are forced to use higher ethanol gasoline.
Wow, a little hostile? Point is many laws are proposed by career staff. And the rules that follow and implement those laws are written by career staff. The “administrative state” is a fact not an opinion. Granted there are many ethanol plants in the midwest and many farmers are heavily invested in them. A bunch of them also closed. I don’t like it either but its all part of the renewable fuels mantra, including cooking oil in diesel, and also giving you windmills generating power.
Some of the most significant legislation is written by lobbyists. Credit card issuing banks virtually wrote the BAPCPA
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/19/AR2006081900413.html?noredirect=on
to ensure their profits. But then that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Even worse a little under the water of the iceberg is the money being made by politicians. A good book out that I haven’t had the guts to finish. I had to take a break after Kerry, Crazy Joe and McConnell. It’s illegal for them to benefit directly, but it’s not illegal for relatives to rake in the money by the millions due to their relationship. Yeah we need a cleansing breath.
Speaking of cars though and cleansing, I just realized that I washed the cars exactly once outside this summer. Normally it would be a weekly or biweekly event but not this year. Can’t explain why exactly-busy, weather, don’t know. Now I have winter barreling down on me and should wax and polish but not looking good.
I wish whistle blower laws were enacted to make it profitable for insiders to report corruption and then make it. And while you and I seem to run a few degrees away from parallel politically I would fully support letting the chips fall where they may in the auditing and investigation of corruption.
Yep, I’m anti-corruption regardless of who it is. The problem is it is not illegal or deemed corrupt for a politician’s kid to benefit from deals with a foreign government. There’s no law against it. Maybe there should be but that could really get to be a mess. Instead, I would expect that a free and eager press would be writing some articles but I guess they have other interests.
re: “Does anyone in Washington pay attention to US?”
hmm … is this a trick question ? … lol …
Tricky question but the answer can be found in your answer to, “How much money you got?”
I pointed this out in the ‘E-15 year-round!’ thread a few weeks ago. It’s Liddle Donnie’s doing, a sop to corn farmers suffering from China’s retaliatory tariffs. Rural states are disproportionately represented so get more of what they want.
No fooling. You continue to come up with vague, unsubstantiated assertions and I’m tired of it. Don’t want the flak? Take this talk elsewhere.
I’m still convinced that you place too much power in the “career” government workers. The only staff members that come close to meeting that description are the committee staffers. If they expect to make a career out of it, they better not have their own agenda. When the party in power flips, the legislation is likely to change as well. Anyone with an ego large enough to buck that system will find themselves out of a job. The ones with big egos are the elected officials.