Subsidies for Oil off the table but Heating fuel is on the table BIO FUELS

I am all for the tea party ideals for the most part smaller government is a good thing it cuts the fat which makes the economy and the country slugish, and makes everything more efficient. Serious choices have to be made and everyone needs to feel some of the sacrifice. Subsidies and entitlements are usualy the same animal they are designed to solve a problem they help to create industry where there otherwise would not be one.

There are several subsidies that our nation has needed over the last fifty years that saved many businesses and created weath for comunities among them are oil subsidies and farming subsidies. These subsidies no longer offer the benefit they once did it has been a long time since the farming communitiy suffered at the hands of low food prices and oil companies definitly do not need any help with ever increasing oil prices.

The subsidy that bothers me most of all is turning corn into ethonol which is a tripple edged sword. People often see the ubsurdity of using food to create energy it has resulted in ever increasing corn prices allong with oats and grains once more heavily substituted with corn it drives up the cost of meat shortning and food oils. What many do not concider is that its effects are most heavily impacted in water. Corn is the most water intensive crop we grow it is the equivilent to trading in water with other nations. Corn requires massive irrigation and uses significant amounts of watter.

Likewise the new creation of biomass power plants show little in the way of common sense. They usualy result in increased forestry which requires large amounts of energy to create. Ethonol from corn likewise is concidered a widely questionable topic as many critics and proponents argue that it does or doesnt create efficient energy. If the numbers are that close then the benefit is minimal at best but more likely is not beneficial at all. It is a game of bait and switch much like todays politics. Gifts and donations feed hungry corporations when the benefits of every public and private dollar should be considered with the same efficiency our political masterminds care more for the game than creating lasting change.

I am confused how so many smart people are incapable of seeing the errors of their ways and looking instead of at a great big picture and the way of the game which needs to change so very badly. Washington has its own way of doing things what I don't understand is how they cannot see that the game is not working for anyone except them. Sorry I have digressed from my point it is very difficult for me to stay on topic as the status Quo continues.

Solving the problems in Washington can be as complicated as possible but effectively can be solved with a number of small changes. If you are looking at a program and deciding its merit case by case then I would say that Public Radio offers a much better bang for the dollar than ethanol subsidies. GAO has a report on bio fuels and has noted the impact not just on water and the environment but the unknown wider effects on fuel prices and the alteration of growing based on these subsidies .

Increased Bio fuels

Production Could Have a
Variety of Environmental
Effects, but the Magnitude
Is Largely Unknownhttp://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09446.pdf

I do my research I find out more and more I don't like for example did you know

Roughly 11 billion gallons of bio fuels were produced and sold in the United States in 2009, and ethanol produced from corn accounted for nearly all (about 10.8 billion gallons) of that total. Blenders of transportation fuels receive a tax credit of 45 cents for each gallon of ethanol (regardless of the feedstock, or raw material) that is combined with gasoline and sold. Although the credit is provided to blenders, most of it ultimately flows to producers of ethanol and to the farmers who grow the corn--in the form of higher prices received for their products.

From the US congressional budget office site

lets see .45 times 11 billion oh that cheep only 4.95 billion dollars that wouldn't make a dent in the budget would it by the way that's just to mix it and we have no idea where it came from. They are also  selling it with the gasoline we buy at 3.00 a gallon that's another 30 cents a gallon on 11 billion gallons. If you ask me that's just crazy does it offer a benefit yes does it equal the cost I don't believe it. I am all for being green but this is just plain nuts. The effects of these rules and determinations may create jobs they also cost every American a significant sum of every dollar they earn. Everyone eats .