Just What You Don't Need! More Ethanol!

Here's a news item from the Ethanol Transparancy Project:

June 9 - ADM has taken its "ethanol game" to a new level with a brazen announcement yesterday the company was "asking" EPA to immediately permit raising the percentage blend of ethanol in gasoline to 12% (up from 10%).

The EPA is currently considering an earlier "request" by one of ADM's mouthpiece groups, Growth Energy, to raise the ceiling to E15 (15%) but EPA's cautious deliberations have frustrated the dominant ethanol producer based in Decatur, Illinois.

ADM, best known for its serial price-fixing and other criminal behavior dating back to an era when the company was run as a family fiefdom by chairman Dwayne O. Andreas, is desperate to force government into providing an expanding ethanol market.

By appearing reasonable in its incremental approach to seizing more federal support (and increasing the deficit), ADM continues to advance its taxpayer subsidized agenda of "ethanol hegemony" while claiming lamely that the company is only trying to comply with federal law imposed through the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.

This position is twisted since it was ADM which literally rammed the passage of ethanol mandates, both in 2005 and 2007, by muscling and threatening lawmakers after some of its pocket politicians introduced the carefully crafted provisions (within larger energy legislation) to benefit the company and its so-called "ethanol industry".

Andreas remains "chairman emeritus" and the family controls the largest private stock holding of ADM shares. Although Andreas, now over 90, has receded from view, a number of his hand picked directors, including former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, remain on the ADM board. Mulroney you may recall played a critical role in guiding ADM through the price-fixing scandal of the nineties and remains under clouds of corruption allegations in Canada.

Meanwhile motorists resistance to ethanol in fuel are increasing as downsides of the corn-based additive are becoming more widely recognized, including lower gas mileage, pollution and engine damage.

Higher ethanol blends will likely force millions of perfectly good, older vehicles into crippling retirement to the detriment of those who can least afford to be deprived of personal transportation.

Unfortunately for the nation's interest EPA finds itself practically surrounded by hostile, politicized federal agencies. such as DOE and USDA, which are pushing for more ethanol. Somehow EPA must find a way to resist this latest campaign led by the "Supermark-up to the World" (ADM), and its proxies. The ethanol mandate and the tax credit which buoys this bogus fuel additive should be rolled back and save taxpayers billions at the pump and at the supermarket.

Nicholas E. Hollis
Ethanol Transparency Project (ETP)
Washington, DC