{"id":22595,"date":"2014-04-21T08:42:48","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T12:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=22595"},"modified":"2014-04-21T08:42:48","modified_gmt":"2014-04-21T12:42:48","slug":"when-the-science-doesnt-agree-with-the-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=22595","title":{"rendered":"When The Science Doesn&#8217;t Agree With The Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hosted.ap.org\/dynamic\/stories\/U\/US_BIOFUELS_GLOBAL_WARMING?SITE=AP&amp;SECTION=HOME&amp;TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&amp;CTIME=2014-04-21-04-02-59\" target=\"_blank\">Associated Press<\/a> posted a story today about a recent government study about the use of <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Biofuels\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wikinvest.com\/industry\/Biofuels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikinvest\">biofuels<\/a> made from the leftovers of harvested <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Maize\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Maize\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">corn<\/a> plants. The study showed that these biofuels release 7 percent more <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Greenhouse gas\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Greenhouse_gas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">greenhouse gases<\/a>\u00a0in the early years compared with gasoline.<\/p>\n<p>The article reports:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>While biofuels are better in the long run, the study says they won&#8217;t meet a standard set in a 2007 energy law to qualify as <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Renewable fuels\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Renewable_fuels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">renewable fuel<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>The conclusions deal a blow to what are known as cellulosic biofuels, which have received more than a billion dollars in federal support but have struggled to meet volume targets mandated by law. About half of the initial market in cellulosics is expected to be derived from corn residue.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Note&#8211;the &#8220;cellulosic biofuels have received more than a billion dollars in federal support.&#8221; That is obscene. <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"United States\" href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667&amp;spn=10.0,10.0&amp;q=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667 (United%20States)&amp;t=h\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"geolocation\">America<\/a> would have a better chance of finding alternative fuels if we allowed private industries to develop them and make a profit from the research.<\/p>\n<p>The article concludes:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Still, corn residue is likely to be a big source early on for cellulosic biofuels, which have struggled to reach commercial scale. Last year, for the fifth time, the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"United States Environmental Protection Agency\" href=\"http:\/\/www.epa.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"homepage\">EPA<\/a> proposed reducing the amount required by law. It set a target of 17 million gallons for 2014. The law envisioned 1.75 billion gallons being produced this year.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>&#8220;The study says it will be very hard to make a biofuel that has a better greenhouse gas impact than gasoline using corn residue,&#8221; which puts it in the same boat as <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Ethanol\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wikinvest.com\/concept\/Ethanol\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikinvest\">corn-based ethanol<\/a>, said <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"G. David Tilman\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/G._David_Tilman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">David Tilman<\/a>, a professor at the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"University of Minnesota Twin Cities UM\" href=\"http:\/\/colleges.findthebest.com\/l\/2181\/University-of-Minnesota-Twin-Cities-UM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"fdbcolleges\">University of Minnesota<\/a> who has done research on biofuels&#8217; emissions from the farm to the tailpipe.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Tilman said it was the best study on the issue he has seen so far.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alternate fuels are somewhere in our future, but they are not currently ready for prime time. It&#8217;s time to get the government out of the energy business, build the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Keystone Pipeline\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Keystone_Pipeline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"wikipedia\">Keystone Pipeline<\/a> and get on with it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/?px\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none; float: right;\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_h.png?x-id=45660ba1-f30e-40e4-b9ab-e1e73c341d4f\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Associated Press posted a story today about a recent government study about the use of biofuels made from the leftovers of harvested corn plants. The study showed that these biofuels release 7 percent more greenhouse gases\u00a0in the early years compared &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=22595\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3320,922,1729,247,1175,462,104,7429],"class_list":["post-22595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-biofuel","tag-epa","tag-ethanol","tag-greenhouse-gas","tag-keystone-pipeline","tag-united-state","tag-united-states-environmental-protection-agency","tag-university-of-minnesota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22596,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22595\/revisions\/22596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}