“Am I Paranoid or is a Massive Disinformation Campaign Against Biofuels Underway?
When the first round of inaccurate and disingenuous comments against biofuels hit the media, I dismissed it as ignorance. After all, it was coming from lawyers, TV analysts, and economists-none of whom had the slightest understanding of science, the capabilities of the American agricultural community, or the engineering of process plants. There were never any backup for their imaginative disasters and I felt that time would thoroughly embarrass them.
Strangely, when the data that proved the naysayers terribly wrong was published it stayed in the specialty press and never found its way into the mainstream media. To make the situation worse it now appears that the unfounded and erroneous information has wormed its way into the nation’s collective consciousnesses. I have even heard environmentalists spouting the implanted memes.
The accusations are:
1.The biofuels program is a waste of taxpayer money..
2.Ethanol is “inefficient” compared to gasoline.
3.Ethanol from corn is taking food away from the poor and raising food prices
4.There will not be enough biofuel produced to make a difference (or conversely there will be a glut and the companies will go bankrupt.)
There is the definite implication that we should once again put ourselves in the hands of the oil companies-anything we try to do will only make the energy situation worse.
I would like to discuss these issues one by one over the next days and provide some hard data. These data are well recognized by those in the field. They are driving the favorable position of biofuels in the new federal energy bill. For some reason they are not being discussed in the mainstream media either purposely or due to ignorance
Let us first examine the economic impact of biofuels in 2006.
The following is a summary from the report “Contribution of the Ethanol Industry to the Economy of the United States” The summary and full report are found at these two sites:
RFA - Media Center - RFA Press Releases - 2007 Archive -Ethanol Industry Providing Sound Returns on Investment
RFA - Resource Center - Reports & Studies.
The most important points are:
1.In 2006 the federal government received tax revenues of $2.7 billion simply from the construction and operation of biofuel refineries. This is in comparison to the $2.5 billion tax exemptions granted by the federal government to oil refiners who blend ethanol-and cited by naysayers as a “waste of money”. In addition the ethanol industry will generate nearly $2.2billion of additional tax revenue for State and Local governments
2.The American ethanol industry alone produced nearly five billion gallons of ethanol. This meant that the US needed to import 206 million fewer barrels of oil-valued at $11.2 billion. This is money that all stayed in the American economy instead of flowing out of the country.
3.The operation and construction of ethanol bio-refineries spurred the creation of 163,034 jobs in all sectors of the economy in 2006. These include nearly 20,000 jobs in America’s manufacturing sector -- American jobs making ethanol from grain produced by American farmers
Not included in the report was the expected savings to the federal government in grain subsidies of several billion dollars because the price of corn now exceeds the supported price. We no longer need to pay farmers not to grow corn while buying oil from foreign nations. They can now grow the corn and sell it to produce a homegrown fuel.
To me this just does not sound like the “economic disaster” and “waste of taxpayer money” that I have heard expressed on both network and channel news programs. CNBC has been especially aggressive. I have not heard these numbers mentioned or challenged. It would seem to be newsworthy.
I would be very interested in your comments.
I will provide numbers for the efficiency, food versus fuel, and potential quantity of biofuels in subsequent posts.
Best regards to everyone.
Disinformation Campaign Against Biofuels
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