Jerking Off the American Public

Posted on by

Bloomberg.com says that:

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — Wheat futures gained in Chicago on expectations demand is increasing at a time of shrinking global stockpiles. Corn and soybeans declined as recent advances may have been overdone.

Wheat for March delivery, which reached a record $10.095 a bushel yesterday before settling at $9.66, today rose as much as 1.1 percent to $9.77 in after-hours electronic trading on the Chicago Board of Trade. They traded little changed at $9.6575 as of 12:17 p.m. local time in London. Global wheat inventories may drop 11 percent by May 31 to 110.1 million metric tons, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But moreover, in America:

Corn reached a nine-month high yesterday at $4.4325 a bushel, while soybeans extended a rally to the highest since 1973 on speculation that U.S. demand for fuel made from grain and oilseeds will surge. The Senate passed a bill Dec. 13 that may boost use of alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.

Let it be known here and now: farmers are producing more and more corn for the creation of ethanol, and turning over their once profitable alternate crops for corn. That means what we once grew, in terms of other crops, must be made up from imports.

And everyone does know that ethanol is one of the most inefficient means of powering an internal combustion engine? Yes? And that the production of ethanol = jerking off the American public to “show” that America “cares” about so-called “Global Warming”?

This is a complete and total farce, not to mention incredibly, incredibly wasteful.

But hey, it “looks” good and makes American Leftist coneheads think “something” is being done. It’s all about emotions and not facts.

BZ
 Share
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

12 thoughts on “Jerking Off the American Public”

  3. But look a Brazil they run 90% of everything on ethanol, MADE FROM SUGAR CANE, not the basic staple of American food, corn. Look at the food you buy and you will have a hard time finding ANYTHING that doesnt have a corn derivative in it. Yet the libs are hell bent on making it power our cars too. Not that getting of the arab oil teet is a bad thing.

  4. WMD: all good points. But isn’t it hypocritical how the Greeny Left conveniently overlooks the incredible inefficiency of ethanol production as contrasted to others? I don’t doubt our need to get off oil and out of the Middle East dependency, but at this point that’s the best, most efficient game in town.

    BZ

  5. Not only is the production inefficient (it could probably be made more efficient,at least for an oil use reduction standpoint by burning waste for distillation) but the storage and transport is even worse. Ethanol has a nasty habit of soaking up water (not good for burning) and eating metal (as in pipelines). The need for water traps, extractors and filters and the fact that all pipelines need to be made from stainless steel make it very expensive to store and transport.
    One of the other transport factors is that the current distribution system for gas/oil runs primarily north and south. Distribution for ethanol needs to run east and west since the majority of corn production is in the center of the country. Try getting an Alaskan Pipeline size project running east and west past the libs.

  7. we have all the oil we need on this continent, we just quit drilling here because of all the silly legal costs fighting the greenies at every turn. there is NO need to be sending our dollars overseas for energy and NO need to be using grain for energy, it’s ALL stupid. with the exception that farmers are finally getting some money for their crops, something they haven’t gotten in decades.

  8. Mark
    If the govt would stop paying farmers just enough to NOT GROW CROPS rather than grow something they would have been at least getting something. We should do with our food crops what the middle east does with oil, sell it for a HIGHER price externally than internally. But no the US sells crops for less overseas than they cost here.

  10. Ah, lets see… yes I went through the calculations already and come to one great conclusion: if you want to convert sunlight to energy, do not go through plants first.

    Energy conversion percentage of sunlight to ethanol –
    Corn 9.39%
    Sugar cane 6.3%

    Sunlight to ‘biodiesel’ –
    Palm oil 9.45%
    Jatropha 3.0%
    Mustard seed 4.6%
    Rapeseed (Canola) oil 9.58%
    Soybeans 3.26%

    And I also handle the algae folks in my commentary wising folks up about industrial output and such.

    I suggest, most humbly, that food crops are for eating.

    When they can change kudzu into ethanol or biodiesel they will have something! Also note the industrial capacity to build machines that do that must be taken into account…

  12. 12 19 07

    Thanks for bringing some sanity to this issue. It seems as though anything with the name organic behind it is gospel to so many that we rarely question whether the organic product (e.g. ethanol) is harmful or biodegradable. In fact ethanol produces toxins that go up in our atmosphere just as other fuels do, biodiesel as well. I suppose when we research things rather than accepting mantras, perspective changes…

Comments are closed.