InsideClimateNews is sad because Reuters reports that "Exxon Mobil secured U.S. hardship waiver from biofuels laws". ICN are, I presume, unthinkingly sad because it is Exxon getting something; but I am happy because the USAnian's bioethanol rules are one of the more fuckwitted things on this planet, not excluding the Mango Mussolini himself, so the more entities with exemptions the better. Tellingly, at one point the article notes that the EPA has to balance the competing interests of refiners and ethanol producers, taking it for granted that the consumers don't get a look in.Refs
* America Is Not the Fifth Most Dangerous Country for Journalists, You Idiots
* America Is Not the Tenth Most Dangerous Country for Women, You Idiots
EU rules on palm oil additive to road diesel at least as stupid.
ReplyDeleteThey have the advantage that we don't produce any palm oil ourselves, so we lack the producer interest at least. In which case you might wonder why we're dumb enough to maintain anything so obviously stupid. And the answer is that the bureaucratic state can't admit it is wrong.
ReplyDeletereuters June 14, 2018
ReplyDeleteThe European Parliament caused an outcry among palm producers in Asia when it called in January for a total ban on palm oil use in road fuel, as part of its negotiating position for talks with member states to hammer out the final deal.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, which produce the majority of the palm oil imported into Europe, had warned ahead of Thursday’s agreement they would retaliate against what they called protectionist measures, if a ban was introduced.
A 2015 study funded by the European Commission found that palm oil and soybean oil had the highest indirect greenhouse gas emissions because of the deforestation and the drainage of peatlands associated with their cultivation.
“Governments now have no more excuse to force drivers to burn food or palm oil in their tanks after 2020,” said Laura Buffet at campaign group Transport & Environment.
Palm oil has been used increasingly as a feedstock for biofuels because it is cheaper than locally produced rapeseed oil. Half of the EU’s 6 billion euros ($7 billion) worth of palm oil imports are used for biodiesel, according to data from Copenhagen Econom
> called in January for a total ban on palm oil use in road fuel
ReplyDeleteI would like to say I am constantly astonished by the stupidity of these people, but alas I am not. Their self-importance utter ignorance; their overwhelming desire to thrust their own fuckwitted ideas on the rest of the world despite manifest evidence of their incompetence is appalling.
If it isn't blindly obvious already I doubt saying it out loud will help, but anyway: they don't need to ban biofuels in fuel. The idea is as stupid as the original mandate to put them in. All they need to do is fuck off out of the way and cancel the stupid mandate they put in the first place, and then put in place the obvious carbon tax.
But they won't, because their overwhelming desire is to have something to interfere with.