Steve, You are correct in your observation "This makes the numbers pretty outdated". The US started changing its policies 2004 when we democrats took over more of the legislative process. The numbers started changing significantly. The Petroleum Institute has some very different numbers for the same time period covered by Pimentel & Pimentel's book. It seems Pimentel & Pimentel's book makes some assumptions that do not support the facts. Also they do not agree on what is a tax detectable cost. Pimentel & Pimentel's book lists as subsidies items the Petroleum Industry lists a tax deductible expenses. I really do not wish to defend IRS tax regulations as to which are legitimate deductions for cost of which are "subsidies".
B ----- Original Message ----- From: Steve Verhey To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 1:30 PM Subject: Re: [Digestion] Biogas conversation rates Regarding subsidies in the US: here is information from Table 22.3 in Pimentel & Pimentel's book Food, Energy, and Society, 3rd edition: energy source/subsidy (in billion $) Oil/11.9 Nuclear/11.0 Coal/8.0 Natural gas/4.3 Energy efficiency/1.2 Ethanol/ >1.0 The oil and ethanol subsidy data are from 2001 sources; other industry data are from 1993. This makes the numbers pretty outdated, but I think the point is clear: oil companies get plenty of help to harvest "free in the ground" oil. It follows that the price of petroleum energy is artificially low (the "natural" price would be the cost of goods sold + distribution + profit margin). I don't think these numbers include the cost to taxpayers of maintaining the kind of military necessary to defend oil sources and shipping routes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:15:28 -0800 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Digestion] Biogas conversation rates On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 12:04 PM, bingham <[email protected]> wrote: subsidized grains....under cut the production of corn ???? I would like to see the evidence of a subsidized grain effecting the production of corn in a third world setting. Most third world farmers, only cost, is the seed. Rain is free and the grass is free, to feed there beasts of burden is free. They do not use energy. Your logic is a bit tricky to follow, but here's something to ponder in relation to your notion that agriculture in the third world is (nearly) free and does not use energy. -----Forwarded Message----- From: Earth Policy Release Sent: Jan 14, 2011 2:00 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Earth Policy Release -- The Great Food Crisis of 2011 THE GREAT FOOD CRISIS OF 2011* By Lester R. Brown www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update90 Earth Policy Release Plan B Update January 14, 2011 As the new year begins, the price of wheat is setting an all-time high in the United Kingdom. Food riots are spreading across Algeria. Russia is importing grain to sustain its cattle herds until spring grazing begins. India is wrestling with an 18-percent annual food inflation rate, sparking protests. China is looking abroad for potentially massive quantities of wheat and corn. The Mexican government is buying corn futures to avoid unmanageable tortilla price rises. And on January 5, the U.N. Food and Agricultural organization announced that its food price index for December hit an all-time high. But whereas in years past, it's been weather that has caused a spike in commodities prices, now it's trends on both sides of the food supply/demand equation that are driving up prices. On the demand side, the culprits are population growth, rising affluence, and the use of grain to fuel cars. On the supply side: soil erosion, aquifer depletion, the loss of cropland to nonfarm uses, the diversion of irrigation water to cities, the plateauing of crop yields in agriculturally advanced countries, and—due to climate change —crop-withering heat waves and melting mountain glaciers and ice sheets. These climate-related trends seem destined to take a far greater toll in the future. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Digestion mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/digestion_lists.bioenergylists.org for more information about digestion, see Beginner's Guide to Biogas http://www.adelaide.edu.au/biogas/ and the Biogas Wiki http://biogas.wikispaces.com/
_______________________________________________ Digestion mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/digestion_lists.bioenergylists.org for more information about digestion, see Beginner's Guide to Biogas http://www.adelaide.edu.au/biogas/ and the Biogas Wiki http://biogas.wikispaces.com/
