WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), voted to advance the Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act to reduce gas prices and cut costs for Coastal Virginians.
The legislation would authorize $200 million for the Secretary of Agriculture to expand the biofuel infrastructure and create a permanent waiver for the sale of E15 gasoline, a special blend of ethanol fuel that will lower costs for consumers.
“Rising costs and supply chain issues continue to impact working families and small businesses in Hampton Roads and across the country. The Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act will reduce gas prices, address inflation, strengthen supply chains, and cut costs at the grocery store for Coastal Virginians. I was proud to support this legislation today, and I remain committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to find solutions and lower costs for families in the short and long term,” Rep. Luria said.
The bill would also promote competition in the food and agriculture sectors and expand a USDA loan program to aid meat processors and create new slaughter capacity.
Does this dim-witted Democrat who is always touting herself and how much she is doing for Americans realize that E-15 gasoline, which is NOT a special blend of ethanol fuel that will lower costs for consumers, is linked to smog production?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines E15 as gasoline blended with 10.5% to 15% ethanol and that is all that it is and there is nothing “special” about it at all.
As to why E-15 was banned, something this air-headed, shallow thinking Democrat seems unaware of, E15 creates more ground-level pollution than E10 and that pollution can lead to smog in high temperatures which is why it’s been banned during the summer since 2011, which is eleven (11) years ago, so you would think that the Democrat should have had time to hear about that before now.
And is E-15 going to save anybody any money?
Let’s take a look, and you would think a real hot-shot engineer li8ke Elaine Luria would have been all over this at the get-go: E15 gas contains slightly less energy than standard E10 gasoline, according to a 2009 study from the federal government which means you’re going to get slightly lower fuel economy with E15, which means you could need to fill up more frequently.
And doesn’t she know that all across America now, with few exceptions, ALL gas already has 10% ethanol added to it?
And where does ethanol come from?
Ethanol is a domestically produced alternative fuel most commonly made from corn.
So what happens when you add more ethanol to gas, besides creating smog?
If you said that you are diverting corn that could be feeding animals and humans into making something that is simply going to be burned up, which is going to make things more expensive, you would be correct.
And if we go to the EPA website we find an article titled “Environmental Challenges Associated With Corn Ethanol” where we have as follows:
Over reliance on corn ethanol could pressure the land and water base, contributing to a dramatic loss of prairie ecosystems in the U.S. and reducing the influence of compliance programs designed to reduce soil erosion and protect ecosystems.
end quotes
That is a site for high school and grade school students so why doesn’t Elaine Luria know this stuff?
And why on earth does anyone with a mind in their head believe a word this fool says?
And as to high school students, if we go to a site that is intended to educate them, we find this, which really has been common knowledge for many, many years, to wit:
Why might corn be a poor choice for making ethanol?
The growing of corn for ethanol can result in higher food prices.
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And how do you grow corn in large quantities?
With large equipment which itself burns fuel.
So how is anything Elaine Luria is proposing going to lower costs for people on fixed incomes, a fixed income being a number that does not change regardless of how much things actually cost?
And the answer is, they are not!
That is all pie-in-the-sky bull****!
You can’t fix stupid.
But we sure can elect them, just the same.
I have to wonder if America isn’t the only country in the world, and maybe world history, that scours around to find the biggest morons and idiots in the land to make them our “leaders” such as this congresswoman.
Her ignorance of basic reality, which could have been cured with just a couple of minutes of research on GOOGLE, is quite incredible!
And for the record, that regular gas we are paying $5 a gallon for already has 10% ethanol in it.
And if we do some more research which a high school or grade school student could easily do, so you would think a high-falootin congresswoman could do as well before running off her mouth about how much she is going to help the American people, she would have found the following:
* The EPA’s emergency waiver to allow for the year-round sale of E15 is aimed at bringing the cost of fuel down by an estimated 10-cents a gallon.
* RBN Energy LLC: “Turn, Turn, Turn – Biden Turns To E15 As Next Tool To Keep Gasoline Prices Under Control,” 04/19/2022, by Jason Lindquist: Using the April 19 averages, a fill-up would cost you $49.21 on E10 and $48.12 on E15.
* E15 Now Available on GasBuddy Smartphone App: It typically costs 5 to 10 cents lower than E10.
On the downside for E15, however, its fuel efficiency is LOWER than E10, so you use more.
But hey, today, a dime is a dime, even if it costs you more to save the dime, so have at it, America, and here is a bit of history on that score from NACS, a global trade association dedicated to advancing convenience and fuel retailing:
“Ethanol More Expensive Than Regular Gasoline”
January 04, 2011
CHICAGO – A feature in last week’s Chicago Tribune highlighted how ethanol has become a victim of its own success.
Or rather, motorists who buy ethanol may be the victims.
For the first time since America’s latest ethanol push kicked into high gear a half decade ago, ethanol costs more than gasoline, with E85 selling for more than regular gasoline at some Chicago-area gas stations.
The disparity is not expected to last, as the newspaper writes that “E85 is a bad deal for motorists when it costs as much as gasoline.”
“A gallon of ethanol normally will propel a vehicle fewer miles than a gallon of gasoline.”
Indeed, road tests verify that E-85 yields lower fuel mileage than regular gasoline.
A 2006 Consumer Reports article found mileage for E85 to be up to 29 percent lower in various types of driving, while Car and Driver found the difference reached as high as 32 percent.
AAA also acknowledges the disparity by posting the price of both E85 ($2.63 per gallon yesterday) and E85 adjusted for lower MPG ($3.46 per gallon).
The reason for E85’s price increase is attributed to corn prices, which have risen more than 50 percent in the past few months.
And with roughly a bushel of corn required to produce 2.8 gallons of ethanol, the price of fuel keeps climbing.
But rising prices don’t necessarily translate to decreased demand.
Ethanol production is encouraged by tax credits – “45 cents per gallon at the federal level” and protected by tariffs on foreign ethanol, which carries a 54-cents-per-gallon charge.
Additionally, the federal government mandates a minimum ethanol production of 12.5 billion gallons of ethanol for this year, increasing to 15 billion gallons by 2015.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently approved an increase of ethanol that can be blended into gasoline for certain vehicles.
In October 2010, it authorized the use of E15 in vehicles manufactured in model year 2007 and later.
NACS said that retailers should exercise extreme caution when considering whether to sell E15.
It’s interesting today, as Elaine Luria touts this E15 gas as the way for the Democrats and Joe Biden to go to do the right thing for the American people to make our lives better, even if it is going to result in smog and greenhouse gases, to go back to the December 1, 2019 episode of the Cape Charles Mirror and the article “Congresswoman Elaine Luria Fights for Coastal Virginia Priorities in Testimony to House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis,” where we had as follows, back then, which of course, isn’t now, to wit:
WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Elaine Luria (VA-02) has submitted testimony to the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis regarding the effects of climate change in Coastal Virginia.
Her testimony provided guidance to members of the Committee as they prepare critical policy recommendations to address climate change.
“In Coastal Virginia, climate change is not a problem for tomorrow; it is one we face every day,” Congresswoman Luria said.
“In addition to threatening our environment and infrastructure, the effects of climate change undermine national security.”
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And now, today, as a result of Joe Biden’s war of choice, global warming has gone out the window as a concern, which takes us to a CityAM article titled “Germany turns to coal as Russia puts pressure on gas supplies” by Nicholas Earl on 20 June 2022, where we have the outcome of Joe’s misguided policies which are driving civilization backwards, to wit:
Germany will ramp up coal supplies and offer heavy subsidies to gas giants to ensure the country can meet its energy needs this winter, amid escalating concerns that Russia could cut off supplies into the country.
The government has passed emergency laws to reopen mothballed coal plants for electricity generation, and auction gas supplies to industry to incentivise businesses to curb consumption.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck revealed that bringing back coal-fired power plants could add up to 10GW of capacity in case of a critical gas supply situation.
He said: “That is painful, but it is a sheer necessity in this situation to reduce gas consumption.”
“If we don’t do it, then we run the risk that the storage facilities will not be full enough at the end of the year towards the winter season.”
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the EU has spent €26.4bn on Russian natural gas.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck revealed that more action could be taken if the situation worsens – raising the prospect of the second phase being triggered in its early-phase emergency gas plans, which were triggered in April.
The second phase – which kicks in when there is a high risk of long-term supply shortages of gas – would enable utilities to pass on high gas prices to customers and thereby help lower demand.
The emergency measures could eventually lead to the government taking control of supplies and divvying them out to households.
It is not the only country that has turned to coal in the current crisis – the UK last week extended the life of West Burton Power A Station in Nottinghamshire into winter, one of just three remaining coal plants in the country.
Germany’s neighbour Austria has agreed with domestic utility giant Verbund to convert a reserve, gas-fired power plant so it can produce electricity with coal should restricted gas supplies from Russia result in an energy emergency.
Italy is expected to announce emergency measures in the coming days if supplies are not restored – having also seen supplies fall.
And staying with how out of touch with operative reality this dim-witted Democrat, supposedly an engineer, although you could never guess it from her seeming unfamiliarity with basic engineering principles, which perhaps is why she went into the Navy, where such things don’t really matter, and then politics, where they matter even less, with respect to ethanol and environmental damage, let’s go to a Washington Examiner article titled “Ethanol is poison for the environment” by Esther Wickham on 27 June 2022, where we have some basics a high school student likely knows, to wit:
Ethanol makes global warming worse, according to a recent study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
This new study contradicts, though, what the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been claiming.
This comes at a time when President Joe Biden’s administration is reevaluating biofuel policies in an effort to combat climate change.
The research found that “ethanol is likely at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline.”
“Corn ethanol is not a climate-friendly fuel,” said Tyler Lark, an assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment and lead author of the study.
This report runs contrary to the Renewable Fuel Standard, a 2005 federal program that mixed corn-based ethanol into gas pumps with the goal of reducing emissions and energy dependence outside of the United States.
This conversation is certainly not a new one.
Corn-based ethanol has been questioned for over a decade.
NPR wrote an article in 2008 containing the same conclusions Lark has found.
“Right now, there’s little doubt that ethanol is making global warming worse,” said Tim Searchinger, a scholar at Princeton University.
Others agree.
“If you care about greenhouse gases, then this expansion of the corn biofuel industry is going in the wrong direction,” the late Alex Farrell, then at the University of California, Berkeley, said at the time.
The facts remain the same today, despite the ethanol lobby’s influence.
Corn-based ethanol produces higher amounts of carbon emissions compared to gasoline due to the amount of farmland and the tillage the corn requires.
It doesn’t matter how educated someone is on energy policies — the more intense production is, the more intense carbon emissions will be.