{"id":23916,"date":"2017-05-07T18:42:21","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T23:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=23916"},"modified":"2017-05-08T18:32:49","modified_gmt":"2017-05-08T23:32:49","slug":"the-renewable-fuels-con","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=23916","title":{"rendered":"The Renewable Fuels Con"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Renewable Fuels Con<\/a><\/h3>\n
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You can\u2019t just sell gas<\/em> anymore.<\/div>\n

Most people don\u2019t realize it, but what they\u2019re pumping into their car\u2019s tank isn\u2019t actually gasoline, properly speaking. It\u2019s gasoline mixed<\/em> with ethanol alcohol \u2013 the ratio currently set at 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gas (E10).<\/p>\n

\u201cDiesel\u201d often isn\u2019t exactly diesel<\/em>, either.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The real<\/em> stuff \u2013 the petroleum-based stuff \u2013 is mixed with bio-diesel, which is derived (like ethanol) from non-petroleum sources, usually vegetable matter.<\/p>\n

The market isn\u2019t\u00a0demanding this\u00a0\u2013 but the government<\/em> is.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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There is a law called the Renewable Fuel Standard. It \u00a0requires the \u201cblending\u201d of oceans of corn con ethanol and biodiesel boondoggle into the general fuel supply \u2013 ostensibly, to reduce America\u2019s dependence on foreign (and non-renewable) oil.<\/p>\n

Like so much that government does, it sounds<\/em> good \u2013 but what it actually does<\/em>isn\u2019t so good.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/span>RFS has raised refining and distribution costs as well as the cost to motorists, who not only pay more for the Uncle-adulterated fuel but also for the fuel systems in their vehicles, which have had to be modified to be compatible with the not-quite-gas (and sort-of diesel) fuels the government is pushing.<\/p>\n

These adulterated fuels are also \u2013 ironically \u2013 less<\/em> efficient. A gallon of pure gas will take you farther than a gallon of 90 percent gas and 10 percent ethanol because the gallon of gas contains more energy than a\u00a0gallon of E10.<\/p>\n

As is almost reflexively true of everything<\/em>\u00a0the government mandates, we get less \u2013 and pay more for it.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean someone\u2019s not making a buck \u2013 as is also usually true when government intervenes in the market.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition to the Usual Suspects \u2013 the ethanol lobby, for instance \u2013 there is a another group of crony capitalists making hay off the RFS mandate. These are the large refiners and chain gas stations, who can leverage \u2013 in the lingo of the federal bureaucracy \u2013 Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO) credits to gain an unfair competitive advantage over smaller refiners and independent gas stations.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Renewable Fuels Con You can\u2019t just sell gas anymore. Most people don\u2019t realize it, but what they\u2019re pumping into their car\u2019s tank isn\u2019t actually gasoline, properly speaking. It\u2019s gasoline mixed with ethanol alcohol \u2013 the ratio currently set at 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gas (E10). \u201cDiesel\u201d often isn\u2019t exactly diesel, either.\u00a0 \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4839,3378,674,15272],"class_list":["post-23916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-ethanol","tag-gasoline","tag-renewable-energy","tag-renewable-fuel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23916"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23918,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23916\/revisions\/23918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}