Advanced BioFuels USA

by Marc J. Rauch (The Auto Channel)  I just finished reading your article “Renewable Fuel Standard Continues To Devastate,” published in February on the High Plains Leader & Times website. …  In fact, your article looks suspiciously like an article that Mr. (Richard) Rahn published on NewsMax.com in 2012 called “Biofuels Not Worth the Trouble or Cost.”

…

You start with the ridiculous “ethanol production causes food price increases” argument. This argument was specious nearly 10 years ago when The World Bank was first putting together the paper that would blame increased ethanol production for food price increases. However, two years later, The World Bank retracted that claim and placed the blame where it was rightfully deserved, on petroleum oil price increases and commodity speculators. Two years after that, The World Bank reiterated that petroleum oil prices and speculators were to blame, not corn ethanol production.

…

Moreover, since 2010 corn prices have generally been low, therefore for you to write a current story about high corn prices causing food price increases is just plain silly. This is 2016; if there have been food price increases since 2010, it wasn’t because of corn prices. There was a rise in corn prices from 2011 to 2013, but this increase coincided with crude oil prices rising to near record highs (3 times more than today), and 3 times higher than they were in 2009 (after oil prices fell from the record setting 2008 oil prices).

By the way, it was during the 2008 record setting oil prices that The World Bank issued the fallacious report that they later retracted.

…

Then you say that America no longer depends on oil from foreign producers, however in all of 2015 and since January 1st of this year we have imported more crude per month from Canada than at any time since 2010. In case you don’t know, Canada is a foreign country.
                               • SEE: Weekly U.S. Imports from Canada of Crude Oil

Crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia for 2015, and to-date in 2016, were approximately the same as the two years prior (2013-14). In addition, we continue to import oil from Iraq, Kuwait, Nigeria, Venezuela, Mexico, Columbia, Ecuador, and Angola. So when you say that America “no longer depends on oil from foreign producers,” you’re wrong. Yes, imports levels are the lowest they’ve been in a long time, but your statement is still grossly incorrect.

…

In other words, by simple arithmetic, if you use one gallon of ethanol in place of one gallon of gasoline then it means that you need less petroleum oil. So regardless of how much oil importation has changed, ethanol has played a role in reducing the need for foreign oil because if we had enough domestic oil we wouldn’t have to import so much or any.

Additionally, you only attribute lower oil imports to “an explosion in shale exploration,” but the truth is different. As the U.S. Energy Information Administration has pointed out:

“There is no single explanation for the decline in U.S. oil import dependence since 2005. Rather, the trend results from a variety of factors. Chief among those is a significant contraction in consumption…and reflects factors such as changes in efficiency and consumer behavior as well as patterns of economic growth…Shifts in supply patterns, including increases in domestic biofuels production, NGL output and refinery gain, also played an important role in moderating import dependence. U.S. ethanol net inputs…helping to displace traditional hydrocarbon fuels and so reducing petroleum import needs.”

…

You write that ethanol “also hurts drivers…ethanol is less efficient than regular gasoline.” This is untrue. Ethanol is more efficient than gasoline. Determining “efficiency” is not just a matter of how many miles a gallon of fuel will provide, you must factor in the cost per gallon in order to arrive at a cost per mile. Generally speaking, over the last decade the lower cost per gallon of E85 made up for, or equalized, any reduction in MPG. If by using E85 a consumer got 8%-10% fewer miles per gallon, the 10%-20% lower cost per gallon gave the use of E85 a net gain.

Likewise, the higher cost per gallon of ethanol-free gasoline (E0) more than eats up any increase in mileage compared to using E10.

…

And now let me put the final nail in the efficiency/economy coffin for you: the reason that a gasoline engine will get fewer miles per gallon when it uses ethanol (or ethanol-gasoline blends) is because the engine is optimized to run on gasoline. A comparable engine optimized to run on ethanol will deliver the same or higher miles per gallon, and the ethanol fuel is less expensive.

…

And didn’t you know that America has engaged in several wars to defend the oil industry around the world, and that these wars have cost us hundreds of thousands of lives in addition to untold environmental damage? Talk about emissions that really add up!  READ MORE includes VIDEOS; and MORE (The Dickinson Press) and MORE (National Review) and MORE / MORE / MORE (regarding World Bank report)