increasingly clogged with a noisome brown sludge<\/a>. Cost to rectify? Unknown.<\/p>\nA few years back, the green gurus convinced Congress to progressively ban Tom Edison\u2019s incandescent light bulbs in favor of more \u201cenergy efficient\u201d compact fluorescents, or \u201cCFLs.\u201d They don\u2019t work in dimmer switches. And they\u2019re made in China, while the U.S. factories that made the kind of bulbs most people prefer are shutting down, throwing more American workers on the dole.<\/p>\n
If you break one of the new bulbs you now face a minor ecological disaster, since they contain toxic mercury vapor. Turns out they\u2019re also greatly more expensive — you\u2019ll find out just how expensive when the \u201ctransitional\u201d federal subsidies run out.<\/p>\n
And as for their greatest advertised advantage — longevity — guess what?<\/p>\n
Those assertions were based on CFLs that never got turned off. Turns out if you switch them on and off when you enter and leave the room, most of the reported longevity advantage disappears.<\/p>\n
Even the congressional sponsor of the \u201cban the bulb\u201d law now says he\u2019d vote for repeal.<\/p>\n
Finally, take ethanol: Please.<\/p>\n
The scheme was to reduce petroleum use — and air pollution — by forcing American motorists to burn gasoline adulterated with corn whisky.<\/p>\n
They knew at the start our fuel pumps would corrode faster on this mix than on gasoline alone. It also turned out the plan involved destroying more wildlife habitat to grow more corn on marginal lands, and using more pesticide and irrigation water, as well.<\/p>\n
Then, it turned out Corporate Agriculture uses more fossil fuels in their farm tractors and the trucks that haul the corn to the refineries than anyone ever saved at the pump.<\/p>\n
It would have saved American motorists money, at least, if fuel blenders had been allowed to import cheaper ethanol from Brazil. But Big Agriculture wouldn\u2019t allow that.<\/p>\n
And because corn is being burned in our gas tanks instead of being exported to feed the hungry masses — or even pigs and cattle — corn prices have doubles and other food prices have been driven up, world-wide. Food shortages contributed to revolutions in Egypt and elsewhere. Outcomes still unknown.<\/p>\n
Now comes the General Accounting Office, which reported March 1 the ethanol industry no longer needs a subsidy, since refiners are required to use the biofuel no matter what it costs. The GAO — investigative arm of Congress — lists the 45-cent-per-gallon tax credit among wasteful programs that could be eliminated to help address the nation\u2019s fiscal problems.<\/p>\n
The tax credit, which is due to expire at the end of the year, will cost the government $5.4 billion this year, and $6.75 billion by 2015 if the credit is extended.<\/p>\n
Eliminate the tax credit, by all means. The only problem with the GAO\u2019s calculus is that it assumes the \u201cgotta use ethanol\u201d mandate will itself remain in force.<\/p>\n
For heaven\u2019s sake, even the Clown Price of Global Warming and other \u201cEarth in the Lurch\u201d fantasies, Al Gore — who lives in a huge and brightly lit-up mansion funded in part by his father’s huge holdings in Occidental Oil — now says the ethanol mandates were a mistake and should be repealed.<\/p>\n
Where in the Constitution does the Congress pretend to find any power to force us to use inadequate toilets, to buy costly Chinese light bulbs few people want, or to burn bourbon in our cars?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It seemed so easy. No need to wait for dull-witted consumers to decide on their own, based on free-market price signals, to make changes in their household fixtures and behavior that might save them some money on their gasoline, water, and electric bills. That could take forever! Instead, an elite blessed with vastly superior wisdom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,24,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-earth-stewardship","category-energy","category-extreme-green"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-bH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}