Children of the Corn

Timothy Birdnow

Ethanol blending mandates are a part of the exploding cost of gasoline.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The price spike is adding grist to a years­long po­lit­i­cal de­bate over the federal ethanol blend­ing man­date, known as the Re­new­able Fuel Stan­dard. Politi­cians from oil-and-gas states have sought to re­peal the re­quirement, call­ing it in­effec­tive and ex­pen­sive, while corn-state politi­cians have defended it, ar­gu­ing it has added to U.S. fuel sup­plies and de-creased con­sumer costs.

Since the Re­newable Fuel Stan­dard, or RFS, be­came law in 2005, ethanol has traded at around the same price as unblended gaso­line, or at a dis­count to it. The two have diverged this year as ethanol has in­creased about 157% to $3.42 a gal­lon in 2021, while un­blended gaso­line is up about 61% to $2.28 a gal­lon, ac­cord­ing to Fact­Set data.

The price of the fin­ished U.S. gaso­line con­sumers buy, which in­cludes ethanol and other ad­di­tives, is up about 62% this year, the high­est lev­els since 2014. It was about $3.40 a gal­lon on av­er­age Wednes­day.

The price of corn has skyrocketed along with other commodities and yet we are wasting so much in gasoline. This was imposed on us by the feckless and fatuous George W. Bush, who went all Jimmy Carter after the terrorist attacks. This was to ostensibly help diminish our need for foreign oil, something that hydraulic fracturing actually accomplished. But the Biden Junta doesn't want fracking, and has kept the mandate in place. So the price of corn rises and the price of gasoline does likewise - at a time when we are producing less oil.

And refining less. Several U.S. refineries were shut down during the deep freeze last winter and will not be coming back online thanks to our government. And we will not build any more.

So, less oil being drilled, less being refined, and spiking ethanol prices are driving up costs. All of this is a result of government regulation.

But it's in no way BIDEN'S fault!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:01 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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