A California company has been hired to provide 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels to the U.S. Navy – the “single largest purchase of biofuel in government history,” according to the Navy – at $15 per gallon, or about four times the market price of conventional jet fuel. The Institute for Energy Research unearthed the purchase in a recent post on its website: Last week, the Navy signed a contract with two biofuel companies to purchase 450,000 gallons of advanced biofuels at $12 million to assist in President Obama’s goal to …
With gas prices hovering at $4 per gallon, politicians are trying to sell quick fixes that will inevitably end up hurting consumers. The latest attempt is an open fuel standard that would require a certain percentage of new vehicles to be flex-fuel (a combination of gasoline and ethanol or methanol), electric, natural gas, biofuels, or any other power source that is an alternative to your traditional internal combustion engine. Policymakers will attempt to convince the public that open fuel standards encourage competition and will benefit consumers. Consumers won’t be paying …
As gas prices in the United States continue to soar, policymakers in Washington are eager to point fingers and offer solutions. Most of the ideas are not new, and some are certainly much better than others, but they will inevitably be part of the debate. As legislators turn their attention to gas prices, here’s a straightforward list of what not to do. 1. Don’t increase subsidies for biofuels. The most popular subsidized biofuel, ethanol, produces less energy per unit volume than does gasoline, contributes to food price increases, costs taxpayers …
Congress isn’t the only entity that knows how to pick winners and losers for energy sources and technologies. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing its best to follow suit by imposing new rules on the natural gas industry and providing exemptions to the biomass industry. For natural gas, the EPA evasively posted a new rule on hydraulic fracturing, requiring a company to obtain permits if the company uses diesel when fracking. Hydraulic fracturing, a long-proven process by which pressurized water and other substances are injected into wells to extract …
Indur Goklany was involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as an author, U.S. delegate and reviewer since before its inception. His focuses are climate change and economic development, among others, and his presentation at Heartland’s 4th International Climate Change Conference on global warming and mortality was one of the standout presentations in the entire conference. His talk establishes the long-standing fact that cold kills more than warmth and that global warming policies cost more lives than global warming itself.
Switching from fossil fuels to allegedly cleaner fuels may not be as good for the environment as advertised says the United Kingdom’s Times. Similar to the renewable fuels mandate in the United States, the UK has a Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation that requires 3.25% of fuel sold to come from crops – increasing to 13 percent by 2020. A new government study suggests that biofuels may actually be worse for the environment: The findings show that the Department for Transport’s target for raising the level of biofuel in all fuel …
It’s hard to find a voice outside the Midwest or Archer Daniels Midland buildings that support the use of biofuels and ethanol as a means for filling gas tanks. Environmentalists and especially world hunger groups are adamantly expressing their concern about the unintended consequences of biofuels policy. Christopher Booker and Richard North have a terrific piece in the Telegraph discussing the unique story of biofuels and how this policy went from pipedream to absolute disaster. It chronicles the history of biofuel policy and how its implementation has led to rising …
The truth is out: Congress’ attempt at “energy security” helped cause a global food crisis. According to a confidential World Bank study, as reported by The Guardian, biofuels are the primary cause of the global food crisis, forcing up world food prices by 75%. This is a shocking difference from the usual 3% impact the U.S. government has been reporting. In America, the production of these biofuels was legislated by Congress, through subsidies and mandates requiring their production. The biofuel bonanza began with the rush to provide what Congress terms …
Looking at the relationship between protectionism, subsidies, and world hunger, American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Adam Lerrick writes: The world has the ability to feed itself at affordable prices. There is no shortage of productive land. Large tracts in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Brazil offer huge potential. Putting fallow acres back into production could quadruple Russian cereal output to 300 million tons each year. The labor, technology, and capital are all at the ready. So why has the market failed to respond to this most basic of human needs? In the …
The rise in gas prices is reducing the American consumer’s disposable income, forcing a choice between filling up the tank and going out to dinner or taking a trip to the movie theater. But policy implementations in developed countries are doing much more damage internationally, like pushing 30 million people into poverty. That’s the latest number, according to Oxfam International, a confederation of 13 organizations that seek to alleviate poverty worldwide. It boils down to a combination of special interest politics and simple economics, says Oxfam’s biofuel policy adviser Rob …
