I have never been able to fully get how this subsidy affects things. However, even assuming you are 100% on the money that the subsidy adversely affected the effort to introduce E-85 more widely, I do not think this rules out that other factors were involved, such as the question of whether Oil-Industry-Dependent businessmen had sufficient incentive to risk selling the product of a competitor directly next to the product of the Oil Industry.
On Wed, 05 May 2004 00:38:57 -0400, you wrote: >Dear Murdoch, > > I think the subsidy the controlling factor >in the failure to introduce E-85 across the >country. > > I believe that the subsidy to the blender >is 5.8 cents a gallon of finished product here >in the U.S.A. > > So, the E-10 has, in effect, a subsidy of 58 >cents a gallon of ethanol. > > The E-85 has, in effect, a subsidy of 6.8 cents >a gallon of ethanol. Therefore, this blend is more >expensive at the pump. > > Please correct me if I am wrong about who gets >paid how much by the federal government. > >Regards, > >Wendell > > > >murdoch wrote: > >> On Mon, 3 May 2004 23:35:47 -0700, you wrote: >> >> >You bring up a good point. It's hard to find "green" business people, >> since >> >there's a lot more money to be made elsewhere. I totally encourage >> your >> >efforts Tomas. My 2 cents on your question: maybe you could contact >> other >> >schools that use biodiesel in their fleets and see what they've done. >> I know >> >they are out there but not sure which ones they are. >> > >> >As for biodiesel business, I have noticed in the past few weeks that: >> >> >- there are a LOT of homebrewers and co-ops (yay!) >> >- there are NOT a lot of commercial biodiesel suppliers or retail >> biodiesel >> >stations. Even though in my (very non-MBA) head it seems like a >> pretty >> >simple and straightforward thing to do commercially (except maybe the >> >> >government hoops - ASTM standards and all that). >> > >> >I think co-ops and homebrews have their place but a biodiesel station >> >> >franchise, for example, that uses its profits to add more biodiesel >> >stations, sounds like a fantastic way to leverage capitalism to >> undermine >> >our dependence on foreign oil. What are the roadblocks preventing >> biodiesel >> >business from taking off? Lack of "green" MBAs? OPEC politics? >> Expensive >> >required EPA testing (I don't understand this issue at all)? Not >> enough >> >waste veg. oil to meet demand? Not enough diesel passenger cars out >> there? >> >Seems like if biodiesel were easily available along major commutes in >> major >> >cities, ordinary folks would gladly pay less per gallon for biodiesel >> and >> >feel good about themselves for saving the environment and preventing >> future >> >wars to boot. >> >> I think, in addition to the hypotheses you mention, we could question >> that the fuel distribution and retailing business is a different issue >> >> from the fuel production business. If you make a great amount of >> consistently high-quality biodiesel, where do you go with it? Should >> we expect the Exxon Station down the street to sell it, and a pump >> right next to dino diesel? Even if the station owner has his heart in >> >> the right place and wants to help us, I question whether there >> wouldn't be tremendously powerful forces at work preventing him from >> doing that. I haven't really investigated this at length, but I think >> >> this partly explains why it took so long to build E-85 distribution >> into the U.S. fuel distribution system. In short over-simplification: >> >> we're asking petro-sellers to sell the fuel of their competitor, >> without them having much incentive to do so. It has taken awhile to >> figure out how to get that to happen. >> >> > >> >I'll tell ya, I was born an engineer and the acronym "MBA" always >> made my >> >stomach turn, but I'd get an MBA in a heartbeat if I knew I could use >> it to >> >start a biodiesel business from which I could make a decent living. >> >> Girl Mark's group was recently started to discuss some small-scale >> biofuel business issues: >> >> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/local-b100-biz/ >> >> I tend to agree on initial gut reactions to the "MBA" acronym. >> >> >> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >> http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html >> >> Biofuels list archives: >> http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ >> >> Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. >> To unsubscribe, send an email to: >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------- >> Yahoo! Groups Links >> >> * To visit your group on the web, go to: >> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ >> >> * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of >> Service. >> > > >[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > >Biofuels list archives: >http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ > >Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. >To unsubscribe, send an email to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. 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