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Strange Bedfellows Fight Ethanol Subsidies

Posted by kdawson on from the no-way-to-energy-self-sufficiency dept.

Reader Actual Reality sends us to Business Week for a tale of the strangest political coalition to be seen in a while — greens, hippies, libertarians, and livestock producers uniting to get ethanol subsidies reduced or killed. The demand for the alternative fuel is driving up corn prices and having big impacts on other parts of the economy. Not many other issues are capable of getting left-leaning economist Paul Krugman and the Cato Institute on the same side.

4 of 552 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Libertarian speaking here by darjen · · Score: 1, Troll

    Because food is cheaper to import than produce locally so all the farms would go out of business. And you don't want to depend on other, potentially unstable, countries for food.
    I don't see anything wrong with using these cheap food sources. If they ever dried up we could always go back to growing our own food. Also, if we really cared about impoverished countries, buying food from them instead of producing it ourselves might be more effective than any type of foreign aid, which is usually wasted by governments anyway.
  2. Re:How about..... by operagost · · Score: 0, Troll

    I think it's telling that this Libertarian joke was modded "+1, Funny" while the one below poking fun at carbon-neutral environmentalists was modded "-1, Troll".

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  3. Re:Consumer Reports by rjshields · · Score: -1, Troll

    recently came out and said that, even with only a 15% ethanol/85% gasoline mixture - your mpg (due to ethanol's lower power density) gets reduced to the point that $3.20 gallon of pure gas becomes a $3.99 of the mixed type.
    All I see is Americans constantly bitching about "gas prices" and then driving around in massive SUVs with five litre engines, driving 100 yards to the store, etc.

    For one thing, drive a smaller fucking car, you can save money that way. Your gas is cheap compared a lot of countries. You can also save money by taking shorter journeys by foot or bicycle.
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  4. "Left-leaning" Paul Krugman? by Catbeller · · Score: 1, Troll

    Left Leaning Krugman? It'll come as a surprise to that economist that he's a communist pinko. So, every person that doesn't subscribe to the free-market-cures-everything is "leftist"? That's pretty much every economist who's not a member of the Chicago School. No wonder the neocons are so paranoid: they're surrounded by left-wing enemies of freedom.

    And Krugman has made every basket a slam-dunk since Bush took office. I guess being right makes you a com-mun-ist.