Ethanol Mandate to Add Twenty to Thirty-Five Cents Per Gallon in 2014 to Gas Cost

The 20-21 July 2013 Wall Street Journal notes that the ever-increasing ethanol requirement would now force refiners to exceed the 10% ethanol content in gasoline over which consumers will not go.  Consequently, the refiners are forced to buy Renewable Energy Credits at great expense.  These are called RINs.  This is increasing the cost of gasoline by about 10 cents a gallon.  Because the mandate requirement goes up each year and the cost of RINs is skyrocketing, the cost per gallon in 2014 due to the ethanol mandate is expected to be between 20 and 35 cents a gallon!

Obama's wish to see gasoline prices skyrocket is being promoted by his administration by limiting oil production on federal land and off-shore, by limiting oil refinery capacity, by limiting pipeline construction, and with the ethanol mandate.  His White House energy adviser, Heather Zichal, is still making the false claim that ethanol use reduces climate change!  This is just one of many ways in which Obama's ideas and supporters are very old-fashioned.  Add this to the old-timers list of Marxism, peak-oil, environmental doom, and a longing for a ruling aristocracy dedicated to caring for the incompetent peasant masses, while enjoying the honors and wealth of their ruling positions.

As I have pointed out many times, ethanol use neither decreases pollution nor increases the energy supply, contrary to the claims made in 2007 when the ethanol mandate was put into effect.  The ethanol mandate would be repealed if Congress were at all interested in the best interest of the People.  That Congress has left this mandate in effect is proof-positive of the venality of Congress.  That they cannot be bothered to repeal such an unnecessary expense for Americans informs us of how little they actually do represent us.

Walter Williams on Congressional Problem Creation

Prof. Walter E. Williams has written a short commentary on a number of problems caused by Congress and the Presidents. These problems then become the justification for Congress taking still more control of industries and the economy, which will cause still more problems. These will newer problems will be used to justify still more Congressional controls and, happily for Congress, lead to still more problems, which will .......

He discusses the effects of The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, monetary expansion by the Federal Reserve Bank, Congressional limitations on oil and gas exploration, refineries, and nuclear power, and the ethanol fuel mandates and food prices.