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Sunday, November 02, 2008
Posted by: Kevin McCullough at 9:40 PM
http://gasprices-usa.com/coal-train330.jpg
Bankruptcy and Unemployment

Many of those who heard this story over the weekend probably have a hard time believing it and yet it is as vital in its importance as any of the rest of the promises that Barack Obama has pledged in his term.

He wants to put such burdens upon the coal industry in America that it is forced to declare bankruptcy.

Of course he would be against "clean coal technology" right? After all it is key to ANY plan that seeks to unlock our dependence from middle eastern energy supplies. He's also against nuclear energy.

He says in the stupid audio from the source that he supports more bio-diesel options. Which further shows how out of touch he might be.

Bio-diesel, and fuels drawn from living sources like corn and grass - are largely blamed for the famine that hit Africa and other parts of the world this year. So many set asides for fuel needs were labeled off limits that children in Africa actually DID die from starvation this year. Several international studies noted this.

So let me understand this properly.

Obama does not want us to drill our own oil - that would free us from middle eastern oil...
Obama does not want us using nuclear energy which would eliminate many problems in the energy crisis and provide more energy to more people at the lowest cost possible...
Obama does not want us using clean coal technology which is environmentally harmless. And in fact he wants to bankrupt the coal industry (and I suppose lay off all of the men who earn their living in the coal mines... and thus punish all the families in state's like West Virginia, Kentucky... not to mention all the jobs that are waiting for people in Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, etc...)

And he DOES...

Obama does want to use Bio-diesel which has been proven very inefficient and even dangerous to some of the least well off children on the planet...

Now Jedi-Obama begins waving his hand in front of the television cameras again telling us we did not hear him say - what he heard him say


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Michael writes: Sunday, November, 02, 2008 10:34 PM
Biofuels
Kevin,

I'm a fan of your blog, and a rock-solid conservative, but I have to correct one item in your post above.

Biofuels were not responsible for the run-up in food prices. The culprit was the skyrocketing cost of oil. For proof of this, just look at what happened to corn prices. Corn is the primary feedstock for ethanol production, and increasing corn prices several months ago were blamed by some on its use by ethanol producers.

However, corn prices actually tracked quite nicely with the price of oil. Now that the cost of oil has plummeted, what has happened to the price of corn? It has also plummeted, from a high of nearly $7 per bushel, to less than $4 currently (and still falling). Yet we are still manufacturing as much ethanol as we ever have.

We conservatives are generally the more rational, honest of the two primary political factions. I therefore feel it is important to make sure we don't distort the facts to make our points. Ethanol and biodiesel are both important components of our efforts to ensure energy security for America.
The Pet Goat writes: Monday, November, 03, 2008 5:54 AM
Not to worry...
I'm sure that in his disgusting last move on Friday, our Failure-in-Chief included gifts to the coal industry regulations. Because he was smart enough to do this before the November 1 deadline, President-elect Obama will probably not be able to undo most of these.

The title of this article should have been: "Bush Waves Goodbye To America With His Third Finger"

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-regul ate31-2008oct31,0,2869967.story
Michael writes: Monday, November, 03, 2008 4:21 PM
Re: Biofuels
Kevin,

The stories you linked to seem to rely on the U.N.'s claim that biofuel production led to starvation. I just wouldn't trust them as an accurate (and certainly not unbiased) source.

It is also important to note that corn prices peaked in 1996 (when we were producing very little ethanol) at over $5.50 per bushel. Adjusted for inflation, this would represent a present-day price of $7.55 per bushel, a price we did not reach even during the recent oil-driven commodities bubble.

You must also remember that a variety of commodities that play no role in biofuel production followed exactly the same trajectory over the past year or so that corn and soybeans did. They did it for the reason that I cite, namely that increased oil prices drove up the cost of fertilizer, the cost of fuel for farm machinery, the cost of fuel to transport the commodities, the cost of fuel to transport finished products, etc. There is no mystery here.

We are making more biofuel (primarily ethanol) than ever, yet corn prices have fallen 45% from their highs a few weeks ago. Not so coincidentally, oil prices have decreased by approximately 51% during that same time frame.

I come from a family with a long background in agriculture and commodities futures trading, so I know more than a little about this subject. Biofuels are certainly not the answer to all of our energy issues. They can play an important part, however. Just one example: We have a well-known refinery bottleneck in this country. Part of the reason for high gasoline prices is that our demand often outstrips our ability to refine oil into gasoline. Ethanol plants relieve some of this pressure on refineries by reducing the volume of product that they must process. At a 10% blend, for example, refineries only need to refine 90% of the volume of gasoline that they would need to refine if there were no ethanol blended in.
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