The Ethanol scam has finally been revealed

A Patriot's Opinion

By Jim Snyder

Well it took almost 10 years but we are finally seeing the Ethanol fuel scam being revealed right before our eyes. For many years many people including myself have argued against the mandatory blending of Ethanol into our gasoline supply. Continued complaints from consumers about poor fuel economy, more pollution, and damage to their engines have gone unanswered. Well, a report just released in August has finally shed some light as to why the EPA has never answered these questions. It seems the EPA has ignored the law that required them to study the effects of Ethanol every three years and report those findings to congress. So let’s take a look at the Ethanol mandate saga from the beginning.

In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. It established the mandates for blending ethanol into our gasoline supply. It also mandated the EPA to study the effects of ethanol on the environment and the economy and report those findings to congress every three years. Now, those reviews should have started in 2010. But after being hounded for years about these studies, the EPA’s Inspector General admitted in the August report that the EPA had ignored those mandates and never conducted the studies as required. The EPA was required to monitor the air and water quality benefits from adding corn based ethanol to gasoline. The inspector general stated that the Obama administration failed to study these effects as required by law. This comes as no surprise, as we have seen that government agencies not following their own rules has become the norm in Washington, rather than the exception.

The real tragedy of this so called environmental experiment is the fact that ethanol production and usage is actually more harmful than the use of regular gasoline by itself. Ethanol production uses 300% more water to produce than gasoline alone. The burning of ethanol actually creates more pollutants than gasoline. It r e d u c e s your fuel mileage by 5% to 10% on average, compared to regular gas. Consumer Reports has reported for years about the damage it causes to small engines like chain saws, weed eaters, and boat motors. Many companies have actually produced additives to remove the ethanol from the gas that the government requires you to buy.

So let’s review the so called advantages of blending ethanol into our fuel supply. It has cost taxpayers billions of dollars in fuel costs and production costs. It causes more pollutants to go into the air. It has raised food and feed prices. And the EPA gets to ignore the law and continue to promote even more ethanol to be produced and added to your gasoline. See any good news in these statements yet? And yet, there are millions of people who see no problem with this and want to elect more folks who will continue this boondoggle.