The more we learn about ethanol as a motor fuel, the more we find it “ain't all it's cracked up to be.”
For a long time I have been a proponent of dumping the Renewable Fuels mandate as it's been an unmitigated disaster, for people, for the environment, and for everyone's wallet. Many of the original reasons for its existence no longer exist, if they ever really did. And now people on both sides of the political spectrum are realizing ethanol is nothing more than a scam, one perpetrated by crony capitalists who managed to create and lock in a captive customer base. What makes it worse is that they have help from one of the more lawless rogue government bureaucracies, the Environmental Protection Agency, with emphasis on the word 'Protection'. (It is, after all, a protection racket.)
What's worse is that criminals have been profiting from the scam by selling fake Renewable Identification Numbers, or RIN's, which are normally used as credits by oil refiners, blenders, and importers to meet EPA quotas. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fake RIN's have been sold and the purchasers can be penalized even if they've been defrauded. Talk about a Catch-22. It seems that at every level ethanol is a bad deal and is a good reason to finally end the ethanol mandate.
