Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Menomonee Falls [WI]) is a cosponsor of HR 5911, the Remove Incentives to Produce Ethanol Act of 2008 (RIPE Act), introduced this week by Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona. This bill will repeal the legislative provisions responsible for the artificial demand for ethanol by:
- Repealing the renewable fuel standard;
- Repealing tax credits for ethanol producers;
- Repealing tariffs on importing ethanol.
“I have always been opposed to reformulated gasoline (RFG) because it doesn’t reduce the pollution it was supposed to, and in fact, increases other kinds of pollution,†said Sensenbrenner.ÂÂ
“Fuel mixed with ethanol is less efficient, and results in fewer miles per gallon for consumers,†Sensenbrenner continued. “Moreover, it’s extremely expensive, even in the Midwest, where although corn is abundant, the cost of converting it to ethanol, and the difficulties associated with transporting it, has made it more expensive than traditional gasoline. As a result, we are seeing dramatic price increases in corn, which is hitting families hard considering the prevalence of corn in food production and in animal feed.â€Â
“The fact is, the ethanol industry has been subsidized for twenty-seven years and claims to still need the subsidies to survive,†Sensenbrenner added. “If an industry cannot survive without government support after twenty-seven years, there are more serious problems in place.â€Â
“I cosponsored the Flake bill because I firmly believe that we need to eliminate this wasteful and expensive government hand-out, and focus on reducing the cost of fuel through investment in alternative and renewable sources of energy,†Sensenbrenner concluded.
(h/t Enoch_Root)
Sensenbrenner has always irritated me, but I kinda love him for this.
But won’t this be vetoed by the fourth branch of government, Archer Daniels Midland?
The tariffs part is really all what you gotta do I think.
Sensenbrenner exercising his Progressive Wings?
Is he also going to stop the Federal Subsidies for Crude?
‘Natch’. (ANWR as ‘alternative’ energy source)
Time magazine does a cover story on the bogus nature of Ethanol and two weeks later … voila!
I assume that this bill will be fiercely fought by the farm belt reps but hopefully the handwriting is on the wall.
Comment by Semanticleo on 5/1 @ 9:11 am #
Do you speak English?
I’m just curious.
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) has a similar bill in the Senate.
Sensenbrenner has always irritated me, but I kinda love him for this.
Lisa, I think this is the first time I’ve agreed with you on anything.
Burning food has to be the most immoral practice that our government has ever subsidized (and that’s saying quite a bit).
How do you feel about nuclear power?
Well, anyway……
Holy shit!
Some common sense from Congress?!?!?!?!!1
Is he also going to stop the Federal Subsidies for Crude?
Oh, they subsidize oil on Pluto? Over here on Planet Earth, we have taxes on it (on top of the income taxes and sales taxes that other industries pay).
test
It was my understanding that there were to be no tests.
Mu nu’s been wonky again.
One thing that’s been left out of both bills is the repeal of credits under CAFE for teh production of biofuel capable vehicles.
E85 vehicles get worse gas mileage than their petroleum only variants. Yet Congress allows the auto makers to credit, or pad really, their CAFE fleet MPG average on the basis of the percentage of the fleet that is biofule capable.
Presently the CAFE requiremetn is 25MPG for the fleet average per manufacturer, but the reality is that it’s considerably lower, even without considering the biofuel vehicles, whcih drives teh real numbers lower yet.
The 2007 energy bill required that the average be raised to 35MPG by 2020. To meet this, auto makers can produce more biofuel vehicles, or they can do teh redesign and research and produce more efficent vehicles. WHt do you think is more likely?
I’m no fan of gov’t regulation, but if regulation is what we are going to have, shouldn’t it be meaningful?
Oh, you’re back.
I see by the timestamps that the blog was out for one and all, not just those in my little corner of the world.
*off to check AoSHQ*
It’s past time to ship all the treehuggers out to sea, pull the plug, and then start way more oil drilling.
I hope that serves some interest-conflicting power base’s special interest so the 535 paid-off liars in DC will finally pass something unconstitutional that frees private industry to go do that job and charge way too much for it because of all the regulations and taxes government arbitrarily imposes on said private sector without clear constitutional authority or common sense.
Sorry for the convoluted reasoning, but I think I finally understand how government
worksfunctionsoperatesburdens enterprise in order to dick us all over for our own good.They’ve made enough cheese off this and moved on to something else we’ll all be forced to pay for, or such bills wouldn’t exist.
Bet: Watch those rapeseed/canola subsidies. Their “biodiesel” is made of it.
BJ – didnt time bring us Globular Warming?
Enoch: Oh, way better than that. They bring us fighting the battle of climate change as The Good War on par with WWII. It was a clarion call, my friend. March down to your local Sierra Club headquarters and sign up to save the planet!
Buried in the tedious and, at times, borderline offensive 1940’s riff were several scenarios as how much thos was going to *cough* cost *cough*! The most optimistic scenario written postulated a 2% – 3% drop in GNP! So somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000,000,000 stripped from the national economy. That was the most optimistic guess!
Just in case you were wondering why the candidates aren’t talking to much about the new Great War…. People tend to get bitter and clingy when a bogus stripping of GNP for a bogus problem places their economy into a recession by any reasonable measure. Good gravy, if our current economy was shedding 3% of GNP Democrats would be howling for scalps!
Much easier to pimp high gas prices and the eeeeeeevil oil companies.
Good. Now we need it to pass.
Over here on Planet Earth, we have taxes on it…
Taxes which excede the profits made by the oil companies. Which leaves me with a vocabulary problem, the government contributes nothing to the effort, but makes more money off of oil than the people who do the work to produce it. So if the people who do all the work are considered greedy for taking less profit than the government who does nothing, what word should we use to describe the government? Especially people like Obama and Hillary who want an even bigger cut of the profits?
Obscene?
Rapacious?
Niggardly?
Pricks?
crapweasel has always been my personal fave.
*votes for “douchenozzle”*
“Elmer Fed,” has long been my favorite.
[…] Dan) Category: Begins At Home ♦ ♦ No Comments Hide […]
A second for crapweasels.
Also a shout out to Twain’s “criminal class.”
I think both sides of the climate change issue are being dolts. This is against my own liberal orthodoxy, but I do remember a teeny bit from science classes and guess what: Climate change is a-comin, whether it is caused by natural stuff that happens with the earth or whether it was caused by all that hairspray I used in the 80s trying to look like Sheila E. And from all accounts, we can’t stop it. We can probably stop contributing to it but it probably won’t work and it is probably too late. And we will probably get hit by a big fucking meteor or something and be living like the people in Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”. But we can try not to pollute so much and be such filthy dirty creatures. That can’t hurt. It is good to give a damn about the planet you live on.
But to put our heads in the sand and act like all we have to do is drill our asses off and we will be able to avoid changing our lifestyles is just silly. We are not going to be able to to roll down the street in our Suburbans like we are fucking Jack Bauer forever. Well maybe. But in an electric Suburban, which is not as cool, because it won’t explode when you drive it into a hangar filled with shifty-eyed terrorists.
Sorry, what was I saying? Yes. We need to just soberly face that India and China have smoking hot economies and now we have to compete for resources with them. It will be the PRICE of energy that will drive us to start rethinking how we consume: We will be more compelled to rethink how we plan our communities – where we live vs. where we work and play. We will probably start looking at better public transportation too. I am sounding super libertarian here, but I really believe that market forces will make us get our heads out of our asses on this shit and living and doing things differently. When gas is eight bucks a gallon, you will be transferring that gun rack and those K.C. lights over to your Prius, damn the F-150.
*sniff* that’s beautiful, Lisa.
OTOH, it’s all gonna end in 2012 anyway, so live it up!
Lisa – put away the crack pipe and stop watching the View.
Maggie: It should have ended in 2000. Because you can’t put a tight dance beat to “2012 party over, oops out of time….so tonight we’re gonna party like its 2011”.
#31: If I did smoke crack, I would not blow my high by watching The View.
well, I don’t know that much Mayan music survives, so maybe it worked for them.
Oh, come on. Prince could do it! Two thousand zero zero, remember? Brother was not talking about the year 20000. Two thousand uno doso, maybe? Or he could just make up a whole new word for 12. Have faith!
Pablo: You are so right. Hell yeah. What the fuck was I thinking. Prince will make up a whole new language and sing it in that. And it will be tight.
Lisa, I hear they have diaries over on Kos. More fitting, maybe?
Word.
No sweat. Them’s 2008 dollars.
Used to be it was the cost. Back when we had a private sector, I mean.
So. Who wants to drill Lisa’s ass off?
I have never been fond of Kos. Far too crazy. I apologize for the long comment.
:-(
#41: Ha!!!
Just don’t be nishi, Lisa, and you’re totally golden…
“The fact is, the ethanol industry has been subsidized for twenty-seven years and claims to still need the subsidies to survive,†Sensenbrenner added. “If an industry cannot survive without government support after twenty-seven years, there are more serious problems in place.â€Â
Hmmm…puts me at mind of the early days of the lotteries, want to convert grain to alcohol for profit? Go to Kentucky and Tennessee and talk to “shiners”, they’ve been doing it for far longer than corporate upstarts, and had another issue do deal with. They had to make a relatively non-toxic product as opposed to ethanol…dead customers are not repeat customers. I guess I could be wrong however, I doubt it.
If I did smoke crack, I would not blow my high by watching The View.
This is Truth. And actually for real The View skews older than most daytime tv. Big with the set what remembers Donahue fondly.
I remember Donahue before he lost his mind. Is that the same thing?
Donahue had a mind?
THIS TIME, I’m going to try to take care of everything in one comment. It’s always a little embarrassing to have three or four posts in a row, but I must admit, I am pretty good at it.
OK, Here we go…
Comment by N. O’Brain on 5/1 @ 9:31 am #
Comment by Semanticleo on 5/1 @ 9:11 am #
Do you speak English?
Sort of, but I don’t understand it very well.
Let’s see. Next?
You know what? There are just too many people that really piss me off. Therefore, I am going to abandon this comment, and go write a really nasty e-mail to someone I don’t like very much.
Thanks for your time.
Isn’t Sensenbrenner the senile guy who owns the Yankees?
That’s Steinbrenner, I think.
No, I thought Steinbrenner was the third partner with Merrill and Lynch.