Vice President Biden - Big Oil's "Fixer"

An interesting article in Roll Call this week has an interesting explanation for the Obama administration recent decision to gut the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

While the left hand of President Obama is crushing the coal-power industry, the right hand is helping Big Oil.

And who is that right hand?

Who could be responsible for such a conundrum? Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., it turns out. According to a Reuters article published in mid-May, the events that lead to the RFS mandates reduction began when the Carlyle Group, the powerful Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm, became concerned about the profitability of two oil refineries it owns in Philadelphia. Lower RFS mandates would help Carlyle’s bottom line

Just follow the money.

Source: Roll Call

READ MORE

• Seven Ways Big Oil Rigs the System
• Don't Let Big Oil Rig the Debate
• The Need for the Renewable Fuel Standard
• The Renewable Fuels Standard, Ethanol, and the U.S. Corn Crop
• That's a Lot of Hamburgers
• More Corn For Food, Not Ethanol

Food and Fuel America.com 
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Seven Ways Big Oil Rigs the System

Useful info from OilRigged.com concerning how the Big Oil companies rig the system to ensure they control the fuel system in America.

Oil Rigging

SEVEN WAYS BIG OIL RIGS THE SYSTEM

1. Rigging Congress: In the last five years, the oil industry has spent over $885 million on lobbyists and campaign contributions to buy influence on Capitol Hill. That’s more than $1 million for every Member of Congress.
2. Rigging the Market: Big oil has a near-total monopoly on the marketplace — so when oil prices go up, you get gouged. Because oil companies want to protect that monopoly at all cost, they’ve taken aim at the commonsense, bipartisan renewable fuel standard — demanding that the EPA effectively cut the amount of renewable fuel in gasoline and raise the oil content. That would increase their profits, cost consumers more at the pump, and increase our dependence on foreign oil.
3. Rigging the Tax Code: For over 100 years (!), oil companies have held onto sweetheart tax breaks — supercharging Big Oil’s profits with hard-earned wages from American families.
4. Rigging the Fuel Supply: Oil companies made $100 billion in profits last year, but have refused to pay for infrastructure to sell more renewable fuels in spite of a law requiring them to do so. Now the companies want the government to excuse them from selling more renewable fuels due to a lack  of infrastructure … a bottleneck they deliberately created in order to protect their monopoly on the marketplace.
5. Rigging Studies: The oil companies like to quote a study that said ethanol damages engine valves. Who paid for the study? The oil companies. How did they rig the study? By pre-selecting cars with known valve defects.Come on, guys. Remember when tobacco industry studies found that smoking wasn’t harmful?
6. Rigging the Debate: Big Oil companies have spent millions on slick advertisements attacking clean, American-made renewable fuel. What don’t the ads say? That fuels like ethanol are higher octane — making thembetter for your engine — higher performance, cleaner burning, and cost less money than regular gasoline.
7. Rigging the Airwaves: Where is the “American” Petroleum Institute getting all this money to attack our homegrown renewable fuels? Hint – API isn’t quite as “American” as the name would suggest.

Get the facts. Don’t get oil rigged. 

Source: www.OilRigged.com


READ MORE

• Don't Let Big Oil Rig the Debate
• The Need for the Renewable Fuel Standard
• The Renewable Fuels Standard, Ethanol, and the U.S. Corn Crop
• That's a Lot of Hamburgers
• More Corn For Food, Not Ethanol

Food and Fuel America.com 
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

Don't Let Big Oil Rig the Debate

The Oil Industry is rigging the system against you by pushing Washington to cut American-made biofuels and bullying gas stations to use more of their oil - they get richer and you pay more.

The truth is that biofuels are cleaner, better for your engine, and less expensive.



Source: www.OilRigged.com


READ MORE

• The Need for the Renewable Fuel Standard
• The Renewable Fuels Standard, Ethanol, and the U.S. Corn Crop
• That's a Lot of Hamburgers
• More Corn For Food, Not Ethanol

Food and Fuel America.com 
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!

Motorcycles and Ethanol: It's Just That Simple

The American Motorcycle Association thinks motorcyclists are easily confused.  Really?

Here's one response.


Source: Renewable Fuels Association 

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• Don't Let It Go to Your Head
• Ethanol Keeps Gasoline Prices $1.09 Cheaper
• One Million NASCAR Miles on E15 American Ethanol
• NASCAR Goes Green with American Ethanol

Food and Fuel America.com

http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com

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Dear Oil Industry: Sorry to Hear About The Spill (Again). Can We Help?

An interesting Open letter to Big Oil from RFA and Growth Energy...

An Open Letter to Big Oil

Mr. Jack Gerard
President and CEO
American Petroleum Institute

Dear Jack:

Isn't life ironic?

Despite the millions of dollars your industry has spent on bogus TV ads, there hasn't been a single reported case of engine damage from ethanol blended fuels like E15. But last week, Exxon admitted selling customers in Louisiana more than 5 million gallons of oil-based gasoline that was so bad that it’s been stopping cars dead in their tracks. In fact, one auto shop reported 40 or 50 customers who had trouble starting their engines as a result of Exxon’s contaminated gas. That's 40 or 50 more cases of engine problems than have been reported in the entire country from E15, and that's just one shop in Baton Rouge!

Maybe the oil industry should quickly rig another study – like the study the oil companies cooked up to show engine valve damage from E15 by pre-selecting engine types already known to have engine valve problems. That was a good one, Jack. Too bad scientists from America's national laboratories, the U.S. Department of Energy and the EPA did a real study and found no evidence of engine damage from E15 whatsoever.

As if selling tainted gas to thousands of unsuspecting drivers wasn’t bad enough, then you had another embarrassing oil spill by one of your member companies in the Houston shipping channel. Isn’t that funny? While your ads are misleading people about the impact of ethanol on marine engines, boats in Houston are in dry dock because of your oil spill! In fact, that one company has been fined for 77 different oil spills since 2008, which means they have averaged more than one oil spill per month for the last six years. That’s a lot of boaters impacted by oil spills, Jack.

And poor Exxon! They had to cut production at their largest refinery because the oil spill blocked their access to more foreign oil. We’re so sad to hear that Exxon was inconvenienced by the actions of a sea captain who spilled his oil, creating a huge environmental disaster…

Then there was BP’s oil spill in Lake Michigan last week, which turned out to be much larger than BP executives first admitted. BP lowballing the size of an oil spill? Knock us over with a feather!

You know what else is ironic, Jack?

How about running ads claiming ethanol is bad for the environment in the same week when you just spilled 20,000 gallons of crude oil into an Ohio nature preserve? Or claiming that ethanol – a clean, renewable fuel – consumes too much land, when current and future tar sands operations will destroy an area the size of Florida? Were you aware, Jack, that the Deepwater Horizon spill polluted an area of the Gulf the size of Oklahoma?

We can go on ... how about the fact that current U.S. crude oil pipelines threaten an area the size of Rhode Island with spills just like the one last week in Ohio. The Exxon Valdez spill impacted an area the size of Massachusetts. The Persian Gulf spill in 1991 affected an area the size of Maryland. Do you get the point?

You see, Jack, the real environmental peril is oil, not renewable fuels like ethanol.

All the best,

Bob Dinneen President and CEO Renewable Fuels Association

Tom Buis CEO Growth Energy

PS - We heard that your friend Rex Tillerson from Exxon has joined a lawsuit to block the construction of a water tower “monstrosity” near his house that could be used to support fracking operations.  We don’t have a dog in the fracking fight, but wouldn’t it be great if there was a clean, renewable fuel that was better for our cars, cheaper, and didn't need to be fracked?  Hmmmm....

Source:  Growth Energy

READ MORE

• How America is Feeding & Fueling America, in 60 Seconds
• Impact of EPA's Ethanol Proposal
• Take a Stand for Lower Gas Prices
• EPA's Bad Call on Ethanol
• The Need for the Renewable Fuel Standard
• The Secret, Dirty Facts on AP's Ethanol Reporting
• The Renewable Fuels Standard, Ethanol, and the U.S. Corn Crop
• That's a Lot of Hamburgers
• More Corn For Food, Not Ethanol
• Protect the RFS

Food and Fuel America.com 
http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com
Good and Balanced Food and Fuel News!