UPDATE: The Ethanol bill is on the Senate floor right now. Reportedly, Senator Jim Sullivan is on the fence regarding this bill. Please let him know what you think. If passed, the bill goes to the Assembly. There Assembly Speaker, Mike Huebsch is said to also be on the fence.
I heard that Senate Bill 380, commonly referred to as the Ethanol Bill, made it out of State Senate committee with a 4-1 vote. State Senator Ted Kanavas cast the only NO vote on the measure. (Thank you, Ted.)
The bill now heads to the Senate possibly as early as this Thursday, January 31st.
"This bill generally subjects a refiner to a penalty if the percentage of renewable fuel sold by the refiner, beginning in 2009, is less than a percentage set in the bill. The percentage of renewable fuel sold is determined by dividing the total volume of wholesale sales of renewable fuel in a year by the refiner’s five year rolling average volume of wholesale sales of all motor vehicle fuel, other than diesel fuel, and multiplying by 100. The percentage begins at 10 percent and increases to 25 percent in 2025 and thereafter." (Emphasis added)
Like so many of these Going Green bills and measures, they sound
good but are NOT environmentally friendly--nor are they practical or
economically feasible. Ethanol is not an efficient fuel*. In fact, many scientists believe it takes more energy to produce ethanol than it provides.The miles per gallon with ethanol are not as high as without ethanol.
The only thing Green about this renewable fuel bill is when you
follow the money to the ethanol manufacturers and corn growers.
If contacting your state representatives about ethanol mandates seems familiar, it is because we defeated this once before back in 2006(?)
Sometimes I feel like we are playing that old arcade game called Whack-a-Mole with these bad bills that keep returning. (Whack-a-Mole is a game where the player takes a mallet and tries to hit a plastic mole who pops out of various holes in the game play field.) But call or email we must; it is only weapon against oppressive legislation like this.
Contact your representatives:
State Senator Jim Sullivan, Democrat, 5th District
Sen.Sullivan@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-2512, 866-817-6061
State Senator Theodore Kanavas, Republican, 33rd District
Sen.Kanavas@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-9174, 800-863-8883
State Representative Leah Vukmir, Republican, 14th District
Rep.Vukmir@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-282-3614
Representative Rich Zipperer, Republican, 98th District
Rep.Zipperer@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-5120
Governor Doyle
608-266-1212, 414-227-4344
Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald (Assembly Majority Leader), from Horicon. Counties: Columbia and Dodge
Rep. Michael Huebsch (Assembly Speaker), from West Salem. Counties: LaCrosse and Monroe
Sen. Scott Fitzgerald (Senate Minority Leader), from Juneau. Counties: Columbia, Dane, Dodge, Jefferson, and Waukesha
With gas prices rising, people naturally are looking toward
purchasing more fuel efficient vehicles. The free marketplace is addressing fuel efficiency and experimental fuel vehicles. We don't need to mandate the use of such an expensive carbon footprint fuel like corn ethanol.
And let's not forget that taxpayers (us) subsidize the price of each gallon of ethanol blended gasoline. From the Competitive Enterprise Institute:
"Motorists pay 51 cents less in federal gasoline taxes for every gallon of
ethanol purchased, and Wisconsin pays ethanol makers 20 cents for
every gallon produced. If ethanol were such a great deal for consumers, it would
not need market-distorting tax breaks and subsidies, much less a market-rigging
mandate, to compete with conventional gasoline."
Be sure to read The Ethanol Fallacy in February 2008's Popular Mechanics issue.
* "Among the various ethanol sources, sugarcane is by far the most
efficient in both land and energy use. The ethanol yield of sugarcane
per acre is roughly 650 gallons, whereas for corn in the United States
it is 350 gallons, scarcely half as much. The net energy yield of 8 for
sugarcane offers an overwhelming advantage over that of the 1.5 for
corn."
Links: Betterbrookfield, Brookfield7, Fairlyconservative
