The Swine Line

Most of Washington is breathless as the town impatiently waits to see the energy bill, not written in a House or Senate committee with bipartisan input, but in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Capitol Hill office.  We expect it to be bad, very bad.  Can you say higher taxes?  More subsidies for corn ethanol?  Higher food prices?  Higher electricity costs?  This is all being done to wean us off of foreign oil yet most of what Congress has done since the 1970’s energy crisis has made us more dependent on foreign oil, not less.

Unfortunately, a lot of people think the energy panacea is ethanol, which in this country comes from corn.  Yet, it is heavily subsidized by taxpayers — as much as $2.7 billion last year.   Plus it is inefficient, expensive to make, and does little to negate our petroleum needs.  Here is a good article that talks about its costs in dollars and land use.

Environmentalists are starting to wake up to the fact the ethanol is a problem too.  You want to read something really disturbing, take a look at this piece in Rolling Stone of all places…no corporate lackey.  It’s a good study on how special interests can really drive national policy to our detriment.

And a recent study concluded that the growing of many biofuel crops for ethanol may actually increase, rather than lower, net greenhouse gas emissions.  The primary culprit is Nitrous Oxide (N2O).  N2O is a by-product of fixed nitrogen (fertilizer) application in agriculture and is a greenhouse gas with a much higher global warming potential than an equal amount of CO2.  Now that should get the attention of global warming Chicken Littles.  We kill the Earth to save it!

So what is in the purported energy bill?  Higher corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards — 35 mile per gallon by 2020, higher taxes to pay for the supposed loss of revenue due to less gasoline use, and requiring that 15 percent of all electricity be produced by a renewable source.  This presents a problem for many utilities, especially those in the South.  But it really means problems for you because guess who will pay for the utilities increased costs? 

The bill is reported to mandate the use of 20.5 billion gallons of ethanol and other biofuels by 2015.  Keep in mind the 2005 energy bill that mandated 4 billions of renewable fuel (it has been mostly corn ethanol) by 2006 and 7.5 billions by 2012 has raised the price of meat, poultry and other farm products.  Estimates are these mandates cost Americans $14 billion more in food prices last year.

So hang onto your wallets, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.