On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 07:53:21PM -0500, Jamie Lawrence wrote: > > One of the problems I think is rampant with, for instance, getting > alternate fuel sources off the ground is that government subsidies are > ensuring they don't happen by distorting the market for fossil fuels. > More than that, it's the farm subsidies that make corn so cheap that it's the cheapest home heating fuel on the market. Corn is a really poor choice, as feedstocks go, for making ethanol, but despite the absurdity of the whole thing, that's what's being pushed by both gov't and agri-corps. Same with biodiesel from soybeans -- an even worse choice in feedstock, but exactly the same scenario.
> Ethically, the entire situation is absurd. Realistically, if someone > actually wants to try to build say, a hydrogen powered car, government > interference in your business is a fact of life, and looking for angles > to Make It Work are the only way to attempt to compete. There are a > metric assload of good ideas that have been killed by government > interference in markets. A small biodiesel producer in Vermont got shut down by the EPA not too long ago because they wouldn't pay $100,000 to the National Biodiesel Board to join (http://www.biodiesel.org/ -- they are one part of the agri-corp welfare conspirators pushing soybeans for biodiesel) and couldn't pay the million or so the EPA wanted to test the "safety" of their product. Biodiesel is pretty safe, people even drink it at promos. And the head of the National Biodiesel Board has been running around trying to tell home brewers of biodiesel they had to pay the federal road tax on the stuff they made, which is quite untrue, to discourage home brewing. -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com
