Alternative Fuels

Alternative Fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel have come to the forefront of the public notoriously short attention span. Both are good for agriculture and as such have spawned marketing groups that want to sell crop at any cost. These groups are funded by farmers that are assessed a tax per bushel of all beans and corn that they sell. This gives the marketing groups unlimited funds to promote various technologies it is also gives them power, not always a good thing. This systematic extortion is known as "check-off." One of the best commenter's on this subject is my author surrogate William "Jack" Paige

The BioDiesel Emperor Has No Clothes

by William “Jack” Paige Founder, Ag-Underground of America

What would you say if I told you every American farmer growing corn and/or soybeans is being systematically extorted to further a nation-wide fraud, the likes of which would make even the most accomplished con man green with envy? What would you say if I told you the fraud is being knowingly committed by Ag organizations in concert with government agencies? What would you say if I told you that every effort is being made to cover up this fraud and to legislate it on a national level, putting in place a system that would be nearly impossible to circumvent and dismantle? It sounds like a conspiracy theory worthy of a best-selling novel or even a movie, doesn't it?


Now, what would you say if I told you that it is all true, and getting dangerously close to the point of no return? Unfortunately, it is the truth, and it’s called the American BioDiesel initiative.
The systematic extortion is known as check-off. As any farmer will tell you, check-off is a mandatory levy paid on every bushel of corn or soybeans they produce. The money is supposedly paid to promote corn and soy, thus bettering individual farmers. Most would agree that, in theory, this is a good thing. The reality of it, when examining the BioDiesel issue, proves sadly otherwise.

The American BioDiesel initiative began with great and honorable aspirations. American agriculture would be revitalized by the creation and promotion of fuels and fuel additives made from domestically produced agricultural products. The EPA had already mandated cleaner burning fuels, opening the door for alternative fuel technology. If someone could find a way to clean up petroleum emissions using Ag-based products, it would be a win-win-win situation.
The environment would benefit from cleaner exhaust emissions from cars, trucks and stationary sources. America would reduce dependence on foreign oil. Ultimately, the American farmer would benefit from being the supplier of the ingredients necessary to make it all happen. Had things come to pass in this manner, we, as Americans, and as members of American agriculture, would find ourselves in quite an enviable position.

However, this is not the case.
After more than a decade and expenditures in excess of $83 million, American farmers are now, and always have been, unknowingly promoting a BioDiesel product that is everything but what it was intended to be. Instead of being made from domestic products such as corn-based ethanol and oil from soybeans, it is made from foreign products such as methanol and palm oil. Instead of being a clean burning fuel or additive for diesel, it is a product that has consistently failed to meet established emission mandates, including still stricter mandates that become effective in 2010.

Most shamefully of all, instead of returning money to farmers through increased commodity prices and/or production needs, it returns the majority of profits to the industrial chemical companies that made the product (called methyl esters) long before anyone considered burning it as a fuel and to the independent marketers falsely advertising and selling the product in collusion with the American BioDiesel initiative.

The organizations responsible for this wholesale fraud knew from the very beginning what they were doing. They knew that methyl ester BioDiesel had problematic emission characteristics. They knew it was made from foreign Ag and petroleum products. They knew that nothing short of changing existing laws or legislating new ones would fix the problems they were facing. They knew all of this so well, that they began to disguise, cover up, and blatantly lie about what they were doing. The machine was in place, the funding was guaranteed, and by God nobody was going to stop them.

There were always options available that would allow them to achieve their original objectives. Alternative fuels and additives made from domestically produced feedstock’s (and that met or exceeded mandated emission requirements) were theirs for the asking. For whatever reasons, not only did they fail to fully investigate these options, they also actively campaigned to discredit the alternatives through misinformation, slander and outright dirty tricks. Instead of addressing the problem by embracing (or at least exploring) alternative technologies, they decided to change existing laws to legislate their monopoly.

Saying that they are anti-competitive is a gross understatement. They have been so protective of their good-old-boy system that people seeking to market useful and functional alternatives to their BioDiesel have been threatened with cease-and-desist lawsuits. In further efforts to quash alternatives, they have set ASTM guidelines defining "BioDiesel" as methyl esters and enacted legislation prohibiting ethanol and soy oil from being used in the production of BioDiesel.

Unfortunately, the BioDiesel Beast continues to gain strength and propagate lies. The initiative rolls on, undaunted by glaring fact. Methyl esters remain a dangerous chemical when combusted- emitting, among other things, formaldehyde and formic acid into the atmosphere and waterways. The initiative continues to fight established scientific fact with new legislation. Official press releases and the http://biodiesel.org/ website continue to advertise that BioDiesel is derived from domestically produced commodities, which is true only if you concede that "derived" means "funded by".

The whole sad situation was summed up quite eloquently in an overheard conversation at the National BioDiesel Brainstorming Workshop held in New Orleans in January 2003. When questioned candidly about the ethics of cajoling corn and soybean farmers into paying for the American BioDiesel initiative, when it was patently against their best interests, a very highly-placed representative of the American BioDiesel initiative said simply, "Just get over it, already."Get over it already.

Maybe they can... They had better hope the American farmer can too. Right now, there’s at least 83 million reasons why they shouldn't.

A small clear voice in a world of bovine excrement!

Am I for bio fuels, absolutely, I fight to keep another group from becoming a monopoly. It is not now or ever a good idea to convert food to energy, when a great deal of the world is starving. It will continue to vilify our fantastic country to the rest of the world.

The warn tattered statements of lessening our dependence on middle east oil is not true now nor has it been. If you are interested in seeing where are oil comes from look at the import and export numbers at http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/country/index.cfm Yes, I said exports, we are currently exporting The 1.6 million barrels a day in record petroleum exports represented 9 percent of total U.S. refining capacity of 17.6 million barrels a day. However, with refiners operating at 85 percent of capacity during the January-April period, the shipments represented a much a larger share of total U.S. oil products produced. By the way if we didn't export oil we would stop our dependence on middle east oil which is only 11% of our total use to start with.

The exports were also equal to half the 3.2 million barrels of gasoline, diesel fuel and other petroleum products the United States imported each day over the 4-month period. at the current export rate, by the time the first barrel of oil could be produced from increased offshore drilling, America would have already exported the equivalent of nearly 40 percent of the oil that is projected to lie beneath protected areas offshore.

As Jack says in his aphorisms: don't believe the "deciders", look it up, educate your self and share your knowledge.