[AT] gasoline

Ron Cook rlcook at longlines.com
Thu Dec 30 16:39:39 PST 2010


Subsidies exist for the government to override free market.  Subsidies 
push whatever the government wants to push whatever way it wants to push 
it.  No subsidies on anything and let the free market work is the way to 
solve the problems.

Ron Cook
Salix, IA

On 12/30/2010 6:23 PM, Phil Vorwerk wrote:
> Oh, I agree, subsidies are needed to help develop new technologies that have
> a payback that is so far out on the horizon that no sane person or business
> would invest in the research.  I like to see a free market given as much
> freedom as possible, but I also know that sometimes intervention is
> necessary.  I also realize that the profitability of ethanol swings wildly
> with the relative cost of crude oil.  (I'm a businessman, but my education
> is in economics.)  There are a lot of alternative energy sources that will
> become viable as the cost of crude oil inevitably rises over the course of
> time.  But after 30 years isn't it time to take off the training wheels?  If
> the technology has been developed already that it is now efficient and
> profitable to produce corn based ethanol why is there any subsidy at all?
>
> I wonder how the grass based ethanol research is progressing.  It sounded
> like it had a great deal of promise a few years ago - from what I heard it
> was supposed to be more efficient to convert to ethanol than corn, and not
> as demanding on our land resources.  In fairness, the current ethanol
> subsidies could be helping push this research along also.
>
> Phil
>



More information about the AT mailing list