The Iowa Independent - Latest Comments in GOP platform calls for end to ethanol mandate

Re: GOP platform calls for end to ethanol mandate

daddysteve — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:01:03 -0000

And if you want to cut down fewer trees then all the hemp fiber makes excellent paper. America usually doesn't turn down win-win situations but the drug war is, of course, different.

Re: GOP platform calls for end to ethanol mandate

daddysteve — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:43:34 -0000

Why can Brazil ship us sugar cane derived ethanol so cheaply that we have to impose a tariff. Perhaps corn based ethanol isn't the best way to do this. Ron Paul had an interesting idea. With hemp seed giving the highest yield per acre of high grade oil (substantially better than corn or soybean) then wouldn't that be the logical choice for ethanol production. I realize that logic has no place in an election cycle but this is clearly the better solution.

Re: GOP platform calls for end to ethanol mandate

ajm8127 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:58:08 -0000

“We get 5 percent of fuel for our vehicles from renewables, and if we didn’t we’d be getting 5 percent more from foreign oil,” he said. “It would be sending billions of dollars more to Arabs, and I just don’t think that’s good economic security. It’s not national security, it’s not good foreign policy.”

Not only that but ethanol content in gasoline has to be standardized because auto makers have to know the percent of ethanol in passenger vehicle fuel to properly design their engines for efficiency and cleanliness. Imagine if you could fuel up at Citgo, but not at BP, or if there were different blends of fuel the consumer had to choose from depending on what types of fuel their vehicle's engine can use. It would be a mess, and really doesn't make any sense. Big oil is so big, that if government never steps in to promote renewable sources of fuel, the oil companies will never do it, and we will still be a petroleum based economy by the next century, with way too much carbon in the atmosphere.

Re: GOP platform calls for end to ethanol mandate

primus — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:44:49 -0000

Thanks for throwing Midwest farmers and there familys under the Bus GOP.