Could the Idiot-in-Chief GET any more stupid?
Is it even POSSIBLE for this waste of skin to prove with any greater assurance how worthless he is?
A Fine for Not Using a Biofuel That Doesn’t Exist
David Eggen for The New York TimesRefiners are required to blend motor fuel with cellulosic biofuel made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corn cobs.By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: January 9, 2012
David Eggen for The New York Times
Fermentation tanks at a demonstration-scale cellulosic plant in Scotland, S.D., built by Poet, an ethanol producer that is planning a commercial-scale plant in Iowa.
David Eggen for The New York Times
At the South Dakota plant, Poet is testing its technology and the economics of producing ethanol from plant waste.
But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.
In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.
“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.
Penalizing the fuel suppliers demonstrates what happens when the federal government really, really wants something that technology is not ready to provide. In fact, while it may seem harsh that the Environmental Protection Agency is penalizing them for failing to do the impossible, the agency is being lenient by the standards of the law, the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.
The law, aimed at reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, its reliance on oil imported from hostile places and the export of dollars to pay for it, includes provisions to increase the efficiency of vehicles as well as incorporate renewable energy sources into gasoline and diesel.
It requires the use of three alternative fuels: car and truck fuel made from cellulose, diesel fuel made from biomass and fuel made from biological materials but with a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gases. Only the cellulosic fuel is commercially unavailable. As for meeting the quotas in the other categories, the refiners will not close their books until February and are not sure what will happen.
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.)
Even advocates of renewable fuel acknowledge that the refiners are at least partly correct in complaining about the penalties.
“From a taxpayer/consumer standpoint, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense that we would require blenders to pay fines or fees or whatever for stuff that literally isn’t available,” said Dennis V. McGinn, a retired vice admiral who serves on the American Council on Renewable Energy.
More:The standards for cellulosic fuel are part of an overall goal of having 36 billion gallons of biofuels incorporated annually by 2022. But substantial technical progress would be needed to meet that — and lately it has been hard to come by.
Obama couldn't be this stupid.
Could he?
Bush signed this into law. The EPA under Obama has to execute the law and the article says they are being "lenient."
ReplyDeleteI'm aware that he signed it into law... and in the intervening 3 years, there's been plenty of time to repeal it.
ReplyDeleteA bill could be passed in a day if that had been the desire of the current administration.
It's all on Obama at this point.
So to clarify, it's not that Obama is so stupid because he poorly enforced or signed a bad law, but that he is so stupid because he didn't undo part of a law Bush signed fast enough? (because Congress just does everything Obama wants..)
ReplyDeleteBut as to this specific issue, other points of view make me a tentative believer (thanks Bush!): http://westernfarmpress.com/government/cellulosic-ethanol-production-soon-catch
No.
ReplyDeleteTo clarify:
If I'm sitting behind a bus driver on a bus, and we're heading down, say, a coastal road?
If he passes out, I'm going to yank him out of his/her seat, take the wheel, and hit the brakes.
The alternative is to run off the road at some point and hit the rocks below.
I don't have to wait until we're hurtling down off the road to know there's a problem if I see the driver pass out first.
And at that moment, I will do what I need to in order to resolve the situation properly.
W#ho put us on that road, and why the driver passed out is completely irrelevant until after I get the bus safely stopped.
Obama is on the bus. He sees it heading off the road. A great many people are telling him that we're going to fly off and hit the rocks.
He's had three years to address the situation and he's done precisely dick.
And, since he's the captain of our peculiar ship of state, everything that happens on his watch, good or bad, is his responsibility.
If, for example, our economy was running like a Swiss watch right now, he'd be taking all the credit instead of lying about it and blaming Bush for his failure.
In this instance, he's had plenty of time to address this issue and has done nothing. So yeah, the fact that Bush may have signed the law is, completely irrelevant; it didn't work, and Bush could not fix it since he wasn't there.
Since you asked.
You said no, but then explained why it is the latter (didn't repeal).
ReplyDeleteAnd as to the issue (tiny piece of a giant law), it was passed with large majorities in both houses (i.e. _supposedly_ many smart people looked at this and agreed). Lightbulb part aside, I know of no major push to amend or repeal it. Even the cellulosic biofuel part is required to be adjusted "based on forecasted future available supplies." (link above) Seems pretty rational to me. One of many prongs in the battle against OPEC where oil industry quarter to quarter short-termism cannot be relied upon for the necessary long term thinking required. If you read closely it looks as though no one has paid any fines on this yet. Apparently they'll have the production in 2012 and if not the EPA can decide if it needs to adjust the required levels or not. Obama has been _smart_ to leave this one alone.