[Editor note: This post is taken from a new policy brief, The Latest Unanticipated Consequence in the Ethanol Fiasco, released by the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics, and Public Policy at Texas A&M University. Professor Griffin, who directs the Mosbacher Institute, is also author of U.S. Ethanol Policy: Time to Reconsider? in The Energy Journal (Fall 2013).]

Executive Summary

1. The 2007 mandates to steadily increase ethanol content in gasoline have hit yet another roadblock.
2. Falling — instead of rising — gasoline consumption means that fuel blenders can no longer absorb the mandated ethanol quantities and still produce gasoline with no more than 10% ethanol content.
3. Auto manufacturers strongly object to raising the ethanol content above 10%.
4. Now, the EPA has proposed a one-time, one year waiver relaxing the 2014 mandate.

“Pauses as long as 15 years are rare in the simulations, and ‘we expect that [real-world] warming will resume in the next few years,’ the Hadley Centre group writes…. Researchers … agree that no sort of natural variability can hold off greenhouse warming much longer.”

– Richard Kerr, Science (2009)

That’s Richard A. Kerr, the longtime, award-winning climate-change scribe for Science magazine, the flagship publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The article, “What Happened to Global Warming? Scientists Say Just Wait a Bit,” was published October 1, 2009.

The article is important in the history of climate thought because it captures neatly the (over)confidence of the scientists who turn to models to justify their faith that past overestimation will soon be reversed. Judith Curry’s recent discovery of F.…

At the dawn of a new year, it is appropriate to take stock of America’s ever-giving oil and natural gas bounty—and realize that much more of a good thing is in store given market incentives to produce and consume.

Oil and natural gas are the energies of our lives. No hyperbole there. Oil and natural gas are the source of energy-intense fuels for transportation as well as warmth in the winter and cooling in the summer.

They’re also the building blocks for a number of products we use every day, making our lives more modern, more comfortable and safer. Every day 143 U.S. refineries convert an average of 15 million barrels of crude oil for these uses and more.     

For 9.8 million Americans, the oil and natural gas industry supports their employment – directly, indirectly in supporting industries and across our economy in jobs that wouldn’t exist without oil and natural gas development.…

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy & environmental policies. Our basic position is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science. It’s all spelled out at WiseEnergy.org, which is a wealth of energy and environmental resources.

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and environmental matters. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

—————————

U.S. Production Tax Credit (PTC)

Sen Grassley re the PTC

Democrats push to extend clean energy tax credits as deadline looms

US Senators oppose a PTC extension

Can the American Wind Energy Industry Survive Without the PTC?…