Airing on Market to Market this week, the first installment of our renewable energy series profiling Senators Barack Obama and John McCain. This 8-minute feature examines the records and rhetoric of both Senators on the viability and subsidized status of corn-based ethanol.
Will either candidate’s opinions on ethanol affect your vote on November 4th?
The differences in the policy positions of the presidential candidates in regard to ethanol are stark and should be considered when farmers go to the polls next month. John McCain would walk away from the investment that the country and the rural states have made in the biofuels industry in the past ten years. To say the ethanol plant im my community has been a sucess would be an understatement. Fortunately, our local plant came on line at the very best time in regard to the market and has limited debt to sevice. There are many plants coming on line and that have come on line in the last two years however that are experiencing difficulty due a number of market influences. It is the time to make a stand for our rural communities and support candidates who support ethanol.
HMcCains statement was that he was not against ethanol- only against subsidizing it.
However under current conditions ethanol requires all the help it can get.
It is hard to believe how hard a sell it is. You would think any fuel that can replace petroleum would be idolized and adopted.
I found it hard to believe that we instead had people really sticking their tongues out at it and blaming ethanol fro the inflation which was pushed on us by the unconscionably high fuel prices. They increased all farm input costs. They increased the cost of every product everyone buys- because it all moves to market on tucks fueled with exorbitantly priced diesel fuel
Fast forward… Verasun, one of our largest ethanol producers, has declared bankruptcy and the assets are now owned by Valero, a fortune 500 oil and gas company. Aventine Renewable Fuels continues down this same path and another pioneer of the multibillion dollar ethanol industry is about to dissolve. I fault the government in the failure of these pioneer ethanol companies for not lending financial stabilization. The contradiction is that it was the renewable fuels standard, conceived by the government, that encouraged the ramp up in ethanol production, both public and private investment into the industry, and the research, design, and production of flex fuel vehicles. So wait just a minute, I think that it was about $760 billion that Geithner helped to make available to stabilize the banking industry. Was there a single dollar offered to sustain the businesses that were fulfilling the mandated levels of ethanol production and were also providing American’s jobs? As an investor having lost thousands of dollars after the initial purchase offers, I resent the neglect of this industry. I would recommend that everyone distrust any politician that might mention renewable, green energy. Obviously, the neglect of the ethanol industry, is the extent of which they would actually support the idea. Does our president know that this industry is collapsing into the hands of big oil, our nemesis?
How about an executive order that halts and reverses the bankruptcy court proceedings of Verasun, Aventine, and any other company that was destabilized during the highly volatile commodities markets?