Browse > Home / Opinion / Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Do you really think oil is not subsidized?”

Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Do you really think oil is not subsidized?”

July 18, 2008

Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism: “Do you really think oil is not subsidized? Former CIA director James Woolsey estimates that U.S. oil companies receive preferential tax treatment worth more than $250 billion a year — and that doesn’t include the military costs necessary to keep oil supplies flowing around the world. We do that because oil is a strategic commodity: Western economies cannot function without it. That will be true until the day oil is forced to compete with a variety of alternative fuels.”

Robert Zubrin, In Defense of Biofuels: “In the last five years, despite the nearly threefold growth of the corn ethanol industry—actually, because of it—the amount of corn grown in the United States has vastly increased.

“The U.S. corn crop grew by 45 percent, the production of distillers grain (a high-value animal feed made from the protein saved from the corn used for ethanol) quadrupled, and the net U.S. corn production of food for humans and feed for animals increased 34 percent….At bottom, the entire food versus fuel argument boils down to a Malthusian conceit—that there is only so much that can be grown, so if we grow more of one thing, we must necessarily grow less of something else. But this is simply false. Agriculture is not a zero-sum game.”

  • Today in BIofuels Opinion: “We haven’t even begun to see the impact on the cost of food.”
    • Kent Barton, plant spokesman for Moroni Feed: "I don't believe consumers understand what's going to hit them next year. We haven't even begun to see the impact on the cost of food." Gary Truitt, Ho...
  • Today in Biofuels Opinion: “The “Food Before Fuel Campaign” will launch its national outreach effort today
    • From the Times-Record: "There was a time when Myanmar — then Burma — was the largest rice-exporting country in the world. But leader Than Schwe ordered rice crops torn out of paddies in ...
  • Today in Biofuels Opinion: “corn farmers and ethanol producers know they are running a cruel hoax on the American consumer”
    • Walter E. Williams, professor of economics at George Mason University: "Ethanol is so costly that it wouldn't make it in a free market. It's easy to understand how the public, looking for cheaper gaso...
  • Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Rarely has there been so much condescending feel-good hooey from anti-government conservatives and anti-big business, save-the-world liberals”
    • Bob Scott, president of the American Coalition for Ethanol: "Today, we face strong opposition, and their weapon primarily is the press." The editors of Forum.com: "The convergence of conservative...
  • Today in Biofuels Opinion: “There are 21 farm states, and that’s 42 senators…They’re going to have ethanol.”
    • T Boone Pickens, reporting a conversation in 1996 with Bob Dole: "He said, "Ethanol is, you say it's a bad fuel." I said, "Come on Bob, you spend more money making it than importing it." And he said, ...
  • Today in Biofuels Opinion: “[Aventine] can be a bit cavalier about their risk management.”
    • Champaign County Farm Bureau Manager Brad Uken in TmcNet: "I believe there is a relationship between the amount of corn in ethanol and the effect it has on the price of corn. You have not seen a decre...

    Written by Jim Lane · Filed Under Opinion 

    Comments

    One Response to “Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Do you really think oil is not subsidized?””

    1. StephaniePhillips on July 20th, 2008 9:27 pm

      The biofuels industry is fighting back against OPEC, by placing a full page ad in the Financial Times on the facts related to ethanol. The Washington Post blog wrote an entry on the ad: http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/07/16/high-oil-prices-blame-ethanol-opec-says/

    Got something to say?

    You must be logged in to post a comment.