And now, the latest in government stupidity

Good day all. Angry Webmaster here with the latest in government stupidity. Did you know that oil companies are required to blend a certain type of biofuel into the oil they sell?

Apparently they do. The biofuel in question is made from wood chips, and the inedible plants from corn and other vegetation. This is due to the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act which mandates this mixture. There is just one small problem.

This biofuel does not exist outside of a laboratory.

WTF you say? Well here are the details from the New York Times. (Yes even they can print something that isn’t Communist propaganda)

When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.

I won’t go into what I think of these useless mandates. You all know how I feel about them. Now, why didn’t they put this special mix into the fuel?

There was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.

Do you mean to say that a new law was passed without careful scientific review? This is the United States Government. Of COURSE those idiots would pass a law mandating scientific advances by a specific date.

“It belies logic,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, said of the 2011 quota. And raising the quota for 2012 when there is no production makes even less sense, he said.

Mr. Drevna apparently fails to understand that when it comes to Congress, logic never enters into any of the decision making processes.

Penalizing the fuel suppliers demonstrates what happens when the federal government really, really wants something that technology is not ready to provide.

Why how Soviet of them. Stalin was a big fan of punishing scientists who couldn’t produce the breakthroughs he wanted. Of course, unlike Uncle Stupid, (A distant relation to Uncle Sam), Stalin usually shot those who failed him. Our bureaucrats prefer to loot their victims bank accounts.

The goal set by the law for vehicle fuel from cellulose was 250 million gallons for 2011 and 500 million gallons for 2012. (These are small numbers relative to the American fuel market; the E.P.A. estimates that gasoline sales in 2012 will amount to about 135 billion gallons, and highway diesel, about 51 billion gallons.)

And 5 year plans always succeed. Just ask all those Soviet bureaucrats in the Gulag.

Michael J. McAdams, executive director of the Advanced Biofuels Association, said the state of the technology for turning biological material like wood chips or nonfood plants straight into hydrocarbons — instead of relying on conversion by nature over millions of years, which is how crude oil originates — was advancing but was not yet ready for commercial introduction.

“LALALALALALALA We can’t hear you!” said the morons in Congress who rammed this through, and yes, I’ll also blame that idiot Bush for signing this piece of drek masquerading as thoughtful legislation.

Now I’m not opposed to the idea of creating biofuels this way. If they can get it to work economically, it will be a boon for this country. The energy companies are all for it. However, I am opposed to taxpayers being forced to pay for this.

From what I’ve seen, and I have looked into this from an investment point of view, these companies should be able to fund the research without any problems. It doesn’t use valuable food, so it would cause food prices to skyrocket.

This is what happened due to the Ethanol subsidies. Because of the mandate and subsidies, farmers started growing corn and selling it to plants that make alcohol. These plants, also subsidized, then sold it to the oil companies and this is why you have 10 percent booze in your gas tank and lower performance and shorter engine life. (The good news is the subsidies expired and haven’t been renewed. YAY)

Since all that grain was being turned into mandated fuel sources, it was NOT being turned into cattle feed. Did you know there have been food shortages in third world countries? People are going hungry because the cheap grains we used to sell them now aren’t so cheap.

Once again, we have Congress passing “Feel Good” legislation without any thought as to whether or not it could be done. Our congress, Moonbats stuck on stupid.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

(2 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)

Loading...