NEWS NEWS AND MORE NEWS

As I receive a bunch of crap from various sources, this came across the screen screaming like a beaten child. "Post Me!!!" So I did.

This is a blog posting found on Hemmings Motor News Web Site and is a continuing storyline on the aberration called, E-15. Finally the industry is standing up to the EPA by tying it up in the American Way also known as a LAW SUIT.

Here is the article.

In this corner, in the red trunks: America's single largest agricultural lobby and associated hangers-on; numerous local boondoggle ethanol plants; and a number of bought and paid-for Senators and Representatives. The challenger, in blue trunks, and coming out swinging: America's Darling, Ford; GM; the AAM, AIAM and NMMA; and the rest of the posse.
At stake: The EPA's recent ruling to allow the use of E15 ethanol blends in over-the-counter gasoline.
We're not an opinion blog. We just talk about old vehicles and generally leave politics and religion to people with an appetite for abuse. But over the years, we've made an exception for issues of direct importance to car owners, now and in the future. Ethanol is chief among those.
Over the last five or six years, we've done a lot of research into just where this federal lust for the stuff comes from. As I said a couple of years ago,
The roots of our ethanol industry are complex, but the EPA's 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard has a lot to do with its presence in our gas. RFS required oil companies to develop renewable fuel sources and set minimum standards.
Three arguments are made in ethanol's favor; we've addressed each in the past, so here's a quick rundown of the pros and cons:
1. We must reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Well, duh. No matter how far right your politics are, I don't know anyone who disagrees. But often unasked is, will ethanol do this? As far as I can tell, no. Creating automobile fuel from corn is an energy-intensive process, to the point that it's difficult to get a positive energy return. If there is a positive side to this, the large energy draw from ethanol plants will encourage the creating of more electrical generating capacity, which will be helpful as electric car adoption spreads. But that's a completely unintentional benefit.
2. We must reduce carbon emissions.
The same question asked of reducing oil use should be asked here: Will ethanol do this? It really doesn't look that way:
Timothy D. Searchinger recently wrote in Science that ethanol's overall greenhouse gas contribution as LCES would measure it is actually greater than that from gasoline: Most prior studies have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will reduce greenhouse gases because biofuels sequester carbon through the growth of the feedstock. These analyses have failed to count the carbon emissions that occur as farmers worldwide respond to higher prices and convert forest and grassland to new cropland to replace the grain (or cropland) diverted to biofuels. By using a worldwide agricultural model to estimate emissions from land-use change, we found that corn-based ethanol, instead of producing a 20 percent savings, nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse gases for 167 years. Biofuels from switchgrass, if grown on U.S. corn lands, increase emissions by 50 percent. This result raises concerns about large biofuel mandates and highlights the value of using waste products. Searchinger addresses many of the ethanol industry's arguments in a separate (very readable) document available here.
3. Ethanol is a green alternative.
The science says it isn't. In addition to the above possibility of increased global emissions from biofuels production, there are many questions about tailpipe emissions from cars using E15. The EPA ruling was made after a (controversial) finding that it wouldn't damage emissions equipment, and does not promise anything more.
Additionally, as many municipalities which embraced the construction of ethanol plants have found to their chagrin, they have an enormous environmental footprint. Some 200,000,000 gallons of water per day are being used by ethanol plants nationwide. It's worth noting that notorious right-wing outfits such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Working Group oppose E15.
So why? Why push this stuff on us, year after year? The answer is in the corn.

They say the answer is the corn, just rember that corn fed pigs make a whole lot of PORK.