Say Goodbye to Ethanol!

[Ron in Atlanta]

I predict that within the next year, ethanol will no longer be a problem for us, in our boats, lawnmowers, lawn edgers and high performance vehicles.  The state of Iowa will no longer hold us hostage and its farmers will no longer receive a subsidy for producing ethanol and, since we are now an oil exporting country, the industry will go the way of Blockbuster Video.

The farmers will be OK.  I understand that corn can be used for other things besides ruining gasoline powered engines,  IT CAN BE USED FOR FOOD.  With some 795 million people in the world going hungry, using corn for food is a much better idea than adding it to gasoline.

The arcane Iowa caucuses, first in the nation, have held the whole country hostage for far too long and caucusing is a poor way to pick a presidential nominee to begin with.  I think we've seen the last one.

Goodbye Iowa caucuses, goodbye ethanol.

[NCTribute]

Not sure you are correct on this. First off, Iowa is not holding anyone hostage, ethanol is a Federal mandate. The farmers will grow whatever pays the bills, not like they have much choice if they want to stay in business. There typically is not a shortage of grain in the world, just a shortage of brains on how to distribute it. China has record surpluses.

[HoneyB]

In this day and age of renewable fuels politicians will never roll back ethanol   

[MuddyBottomBluz]

9 hours ago, HoneyB said:

In this day and age of renewable fuels politicians will never roll back ethanol   

They would if they did not ignore the science or the facts about ethanol vs non-ethanol fuel.

[HoneyB]

Facts???? We’re talking politics not facts

 

[Ron in Atlanta]

On 2/4/2020 at 10:05 PM, NCTribute said:

Iowa is not holding anyone hostage, ethanol is a Federal mandate

Yes, the ethanol industry subsidy and requirements for its use are indeed Federal mandates but as long as the first nominating event in the presidential race is held in Iowa and as long as almost every elected official in Washington thinks that they could some day run for president, no elected official in the Federal government is going to say a bad word about ethanol (with the exception of Ted Cruz and no one likes him anyway). 

The role of the Iowa caucus as de facto gatekeeper to the presidential nomination has always been unfair.  Less than 20% of registered voters turn out, the state is not representative of the diversity of the rest of the country, more than double the share of Iowans work in agriculture than the rest of the country, and Iowa is far less urban than the rest of the country.  The recent catastrophe that was the 2020 Iowa caucus should put the final nail in the coffin.  Candidates will no longer have to waste a year of their campaign stalking around Iowa eating too much fried food and wearing flannel shirts.  They can instead, make plans as to how to restore civility to  the process AND most important to us, stop supporting ethanol.

[NCTribute]

But the tenderloin sandwiches in Iowa are out of this world, that in of itself is worth it.

Understand what you are saying, but do not think the Iowa caucus ultimately has as much impact as you are implying. For example, in 1992 Bill Clinton got 2.8% of the vote, but went on to win the office.

Nowhere in the US has the perfect mix of diversity, you just will not find it and will always have something to be critical of. But Iowa does have more diversity than most people realize and has one of the highest educational ratings in the nation. So maybe it is not such a bad place to start and see what people think.

Full disclosure, I grew up in Iowa City, IA. Molly Van Allen was in my grade school class (her father discovered the Van Allen radiation belts), I was on stage with Mikhail Baryshnikov (Swan Lake), worked detasseling corn for $1.80/hr and the King of the Hobos were typically elected there, got to meet several of them, how is that for diversity?