From now on I will go there to get the gas for our cars and mowers and if I knew earlier I would have been there, and belive me going over there for teh gas will save me money in the long run
Ethanol producer’s failure forces corn buyback BY JAMES SCHLETT Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter James Schlett at 395-3040 or jschlett@dailygazette.net.
The delayed launch and botched construction of what aimed to be the Northeast’s largest ethanol production plant is prompting its corn supplier in Troy to buy back more than 800,000 bushels of corn. Combined with the Oswego County ethanol producer’s decision to seek bankruptcy production last month, the corn buyback deals a symbolic blow to the New York farmers who grew the crop. Sitting in the silos and a bunker outside the former Miller Brewing Co. plant in Fulton are the bushels of corn a start-up company had intended to use for the production of ethanol fuel at the site. A company called Northeast Biofuels bought much of that corn between September and November, shortly after its Fulton facility reached three quarters of its projected ethanol production capacity. But Northeast Biofuels achieved that interim completed status nine months behind schedule and found the plant riddled with design and construction problems. Those setbacks forced the producer to idle the 57-employee facility in late 2008. After clashing with its building contractor over the structural issues and unable to make $44 million in payments to lenders due Jan. 14, Northeast that day filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in a Syracuse bankruptcy court. Along with trying to find another contractor to remedy problems at the plant and bring it back to operational status, Northeast is trying to get the estimated $2.6 million worth of corn back into the market before it deteriorates and its value diminishes. Last Wednesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Margaret Cangilos-Ruiz authorized Northeast to sell the corn back to Interstate Commodities, the Troy commodity trading firm that in February 2008 became Northeast’s exclusive supplier of corn. “They’re buying it back so they can resell it,” said Interstate attorney Francis Brennan. The launch of the Fulton plant was expected to be a boon for New York’s agriculture industry. Northeast expected to use up to 40 million bushels of corn for the annual production of 100 million gallons of ethanol. For the Northeast contract, the 62-yearold Interstate turned its attention to New York corn growers. The firm previously dealt primarily with agriculture operations in the Midwest, South and Southeast. When announcing the deal with Northeast last March, Interstate President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Oberting said he was “proud to be able to originate grain directly from New York corn growers to a demand customer in New York. That’s never been done before.” Brennan said he was not sure to whom Interstate would sell the Northeast corn, but he was confident the firm would be able to fi nd buyers for it. If and when the plant becomes operational, Interstate will likely continue supplying it with corn. Along with ethanol, Northeast was slated to generate 367,000 tons of a high-protein animal feed known as distiller grains and 10 million gallons per year of crude corn oil. Under its multiyear contract with Northeast, Interstate will also merchandise the distiller grains. Northeast’s Chapter 11 filing is the latest symptom of softness in the ethanol production industry, which just a year ago was booming. Last week, Wisconsin’s largest ethanol plant, Renew Energy, also filed for bankruptcy reorganization. Many other ethanol operations are ....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00402
Food prices to drop now?????? ketchup/syrup and all the other crap with that highfructose corn syrup had better decrease in price or increase in volume for the prices we pay.......
do you hear me Ms. Heinz........
unjust scales (with or without CEO salary caps) are still unjust........
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Producers asking feds to allow more ethanol in blended gasoline BY H. JOSEF HEBERT The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Ethanol producers asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to boost the amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline, but automakers argued the increase could damage car engines and fuel lines. The ethanol producers want the EPA to increase the amount of ethanol that refiners can blend with gasoline from a maximum of 10 percent to 15 percent, which could boost the demand for the renewable fuel additive by as much as 6 billion gallons a year. “Increasing the ethanol blend up to E15 is a common sense solution to our economic, energy and environmental challenges,” said retired Gen. Wesley Clark, co-chairman of Growth Energy, a coalition of ethanol companies. The group argued that a number of studies, including one by the Energy Department, has shown that a 15 percent ethanol blend “has no adverse effects on a car’s performance, maintenance or emissions controls.” The ethanol producers contend that by raising the maximum amount of ethanol allowed in a gallon of gasoline, it would increase demand for the fuel additive and create thousands of new jobs as the industry — which has been reeling in today’s tough economic times — boosts production. “If the EPA acts swiftly, a higher blend of ethanol will help us jumpstart the economy while further reducing our dependence on foreign oil,” Clark said. EPA press secretary Adora Andy said in a statement that the agency will review the request and “will act based on the best available science.” But automakers and the producers of outdoor power equipment say the science has not yet shown that the higher “midlevel” blend of ethanol will safeguard engines, fuel lines, emission controls and other components. “There has not been sufficient testing of motor vehicles and nonroad power equipment ... to determine whether any midlevel ethanol blend would meet current federal air quality protection requirements or be safe for consumers to use,” said a coalition whose members included automakers, boat owners, motorcycle manufacturers and oil refiners. Charles Territo, a spokesman for the Alliance for Automobile Manufacturers, said, “The best way to increase ethanol use is to expand” the infrastructure for......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00303
Ethanol isn't good for cars and small engines unless they engineer the engines to burn it, it costs more to make and it decreases mileage so just discontinue the ethanol program.
WASHINGTON — Food stamps and child nutrition programs are expected to cost up to $900 million more this year because of increased ethanol use. Higher use of the corn-based fuel additive accounted for about 10 percent to 15 percent of the rise in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That could mean the government will have to spend more on food programs for the needy during the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30. It estimated the additional cost at up to $900 million. The CBO said other factors, such as skyrocketing energy costs, have had an even greater effect than ethanol on food prices. CBO economists estimate that increased costs for food programs overall due to higher food prices will be about $5.3 billion this budget year. Ethanol’s impact on future food prices is uncertain, the report says, because an increased supply of corn has the potential to eventually lower food prices. Roughly one-quarter of corn grown in the United States is now used to produce ethanol and overall consumption of ethanol in the country hit a record high last year, exceeding 9 billion gallons, according to the CBO. Supporters of the ethanol industry said the report was good news. “The report released by the Congressional Budget Office confirms what we’ve known for some time: The impact of ethanol production on food prices is minimal and that energy was the main driver in the rise of food prices,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, an ethanol industry group.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
No.....the government doesn't just decide.....there are lobbyists.....who were the lobbyists for ethanol use to begin with?????? Just like arbitors,,,,lobbyists put weight on the government....my guess would be corn farmers lobby group...........
the government makes regulations and 'minimums' based on the lobbyists $$$$$$$$$$.......and walla.......another pipeline of $$$ going somewhere else
there are so many pipelines leading from our tax rate to the government to the groups who lobby for the money that there is no more pressure in the pipes......they can switch all the valves they want but the fact is there is no more blood(tea) to flow through the pipelines.......
I cant afford you and you cant afford me......I cant afford GM and GM doesn't know who I am.....I cant afford AIG and AIG doesn't know who I am.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
A lot of people are having trouble with their small air-cooled engines, push lawn mowers and such, as small engine mechanics can testify. Don’t blame it on the manufacturer. It’s the ethanol. Especially in hotter weather, these engines are cooking, and subject to failure. Ethanol, bad idea that it was, is here to stay, although a reduction of grain alcohol in the mixture wouldn’t be a bad idea. Americans need a choice between gasoline and ethanol. At least we should have access to fuel that won’t destroy our machinery. The gods of government might think that replacement of such things as mowers might stimulate the economy, but that [would mean] less [money] to spend elsewhere. We the people perceive that most of those in government don’t have much to think with, anyway.
Just one more idiotic idea by our well meaning government when they don't have a clue of what to do to solve a problem, hurry up and do something even if it's wrong.
Ethanol’s clout wanes as more blame it for high food prices BY MARY CLARE JALONICK The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Is corn-based ethanol fuel the wave of the future, creating domestic jobs and vital to the nation’s energy supply? Or is it a taxpayer boondoggle responsible for higher food prices? For some in Washington, the answers to those questions have changed. For years, ethanol fuel derived from corn was almost politically untouchable, thanks to powerful advocates on Capitol Hill. The ethanol industry has consequently exploded over the last decade, thanks to government subsidies and incentives. But skepticism about ethanol is rising, prompted by fluctuating food prices and an organized campaign by anti-ethanol advocates to discredit the industry. “The old saying is that if you aren’t at the table, you’re on the menu,” says Tom Buis, lobbyist and CEO of Growth Energy, a new ethanol industry group formed in 2008 as some ethanol companies grew worried that their political clout was waning. The organization’s largest member is Poet LLC, one of the country’s top two ethanol producers. At stake are billions of dollars in tax credits for ethanol companies that expire at the end of the year and a pending action at the Environmental Protection Agency that could raise the amount of ethanol in every driver’s fuel tank. Once a slam dunk, Buis says the industry now has to work harder to convince an increasingly skeptical public and Congress that ethanol continues to deserve government money. A series of television ads launched this week are part of the group’s efforts. There’s evidence that Congress is weary of giving money to an industry that critics say should be able to stand on its own after getting its start in the early 1980s with powerful congressional advocates like Sens. Bob Dole of Kansas and Tom Daschle of South Dakota. “It is our view that after 30 years we should declare success,” says Scott Faber, a lobbyist for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents food companies that say they have seen their prices rise because of the high use of corn for ethanol. GMA is part of a growing patchwork of food companies, livestock producers, environmental groups and oil companies who have spent millions of dollars in the last few years framing ethanol’s success as “food vs. fuel.” They argue that the increase in production of corn and its diversion for ethanol is making animal feed more expensive, raising prices at the grocery store and tearing up the land. The diversion of corn has been particularly tough on the meat industry, which uses corn for animal feed. But the ethanol industry disputes that the fuel has a substantial effect on food prices, saying corn prices only affect a small portion of each dollar overall spent at the grocery store. .............>>>>................>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00800&AppName=1
It was bound to happen sooner or later — a corn crop not quite as humongous as the one the year before. That’s what U.S. farmers harvested last year, and even though the decrease was only 5 percent from the previous year’s record 13.2 billion bushels, it’s already triggering a substantial jump in food prices. The reason, detailed in a Gazette business story Thursday, has much to do with ethanol, which is an oil-saving additive in today’s gasoline. Demand for ethanol has been rising, which has impacted the Grain Belt’s corn stockpiles. So corn prices have been rising, and since so many food products (not to mention packaging) are corn-based or rely on corn in some way, food prices are likely to follow suit. If ethanol were the miraculous biofuel it was originally touted as, it might be worth some food inflation, but it’s not. For one thing, it requires a large amount of natural gas and diesel fuel to produce. For another, it creates smog. The overplanting of corn resulting from the ethanol craze has also depleted valuable farm soil, polluting the Mississippi River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and reducing the size of other, healthier crops. .............>>>>....................>>>>..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r03003&AppName=1
Logged
