Across this great nation, African-American families are struggling to do more with less. They must find ways to keep food on the table at a time when costs are skyrocketing and they are trying to rebuild savings by stringing together part-time jobs. The Pew Research Center recently reported an alarming statistic: “the median wealth of non-Hispanic black households fell 33.7%, from $16,600 in 2010 to $11,000 in 2013”.
Given the harsh economic reality of many African-American families, I’ve been disappointed to learn a large number of communities have voted in favor of an ordinance which would bring them even further harm. Requiring E15 (15 percent corn ethanol, 85% gasoline) to be sold in gas stations, adversely affect many of the most vulnerable citizens.
Currently 10 percent (E10) is the highest corn ethanol content sold. Supporters said that E15 will improve the environment and lower prices, however, many experts have countered those claims, including scientists, economists, owners of gas stations, restaurant owners, car manufacturers, AAA and even bakers, food pantries and the environmental community.
Corn is used not only in fuel, it is also used for almost every type of food that we consume such as cereal, bread, gravy, (corn syrup, corn starch), fried foods (corn oil), and chicken, beef, pork (corn-feed). The more corn grown for fuel, the less land for corn for food and feed, driving up costs. According to FarmEcon, ethanol mandates could result in a family of four paying more than $2,000 per year in extra food costs. For African-American families who are already struggling to make ends meet, added food costs would undoubtedly hurt.
E15 could also damage car engines as well as lawnmowers, snowblowers, motorcycles and other small engines. When you’re out several thousand dollars because your car or tools got ruined by this slightly higher ethanol blend, or because you accidentally filled up on E15, you’ll understand why the move to E15 is being opposed by a diverse set of groups.
Then there is the local service station owner who has to pay upward of $125,000 to install the equipment that will dispense E15. Those stations provide jobs, food and staples for families in the community. What happens to those jobs and retail options for those small owners who won’t be able to afford to install expensive equipment? They will be gone. And for larger station owners who can and will have to spend a small fortune to stay in business, who do you think they’re going to pass the costs on to? Their customers, of course.
Proponents of E15 tell us that ethanol blends are less expensive than unadulterated gasoline, but this isn’t true. Because ethanol burns faster than gasoline, so drivers using it run out of fuel faster and have to fill up more often. Where is the savings?
And E15’s environmental benefits are not what they are purported to be. Studies and reports have concluded that corn ethanol could actually contribute to higher greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). .Also, increased demand for corn for fuel has led to billions of pounds of fertilizer in rivers, lakes and groundwater. How environmentally friendly is that?
Algenon Cash, managing director of Wharton Gladden & Co., an investment banking firm, is also a national spokesperson for the oil and natural gas industry. Reach him at acash@whartongladden.com.
5 comments
Algenon, you are a successful professional that has sadly fallen victim to expanding your paycheck instead of telling the truth to your community. You are personally cashing in on the oil industry by selling out black families. You are being paid as a member of the black community to mislead voters and policy makers by attempting to claim that the Renewable Fuel Standard is an ethnic issue. It is not an ethnic issue. The RFS was created by the 2005/2007 American Independence and Security Act to achieve energy independence from OPEC and other foreign oil interests. All families are equally benefiting from the RFS. You seem to not be aware that virtually zero of the corn protein, corn oil or corn fiber is converted into ethanol, since only corn starch can become sugar for the yeast to produce ethanol! The protein, oil and fiber are known as Distillers Grains and are one of the largest sources of inexpensive animal feed in the US, lowering food prices for families. Only the “donuts” in corn kernels became 113 octane, 34% oxygen, high power, cool running, renewable, domestic, job-creating ethanol biofuel. So, how much are you being paid to spread misleading untruths about the Energy and Security Act? Any foreign oil companies or interests backed by OPEC? Watch the Russia investigation news and think about the source of funds for your paycheck. It is time to start investigating the funding of the Fake News that you are promoting.
Corn is an amazing plant. The field corn used in ethanol is inedible to humans. Even livestock have a hard time eating it unless it’s ground up first. The process of making ethanol grinds it up so animals easily digest it everything left over. Only the starch in corn is used to make ethanol. Everything else is turned into food. The byproduct is a cheap high protein animal feed. This helps keep the price of burgers down. Chickens also eat the distillers grain byproduct. It even feeds millions of pig. People, of course eat these animals and are fed by field corn that was originally inedible. Most people don’t realize all the food products that come from ethanol companies. The ethanol industry currently extracts over 3 billion pounds of corn oil. A lot of this corn oil is fed to animals to fatten them up and some is refined to food grade corn oil. Corn syrup and high protein animal feed are other products. CO2 is captured and sold to the food and beverage industry for carbonated water, pop, etc. An ethanol plant in Iowa is growing algae from their emission stack and feeding this to trout, more food. And the next time you eat mustard, pickles, ketchup or anything with vinegar, remember, the main ingredient in vinegar is ethanol… How much food is produced as a byproduct of crude oil? Also, ethanol production is at an all time high of over 15 billion gallons a year. Yet the price of corn is at multi-year lows. If we didn’t have 15 billion gallons of ethanol in the fuel supply, gas prices would be much higher. Food prices would be higher too since the price of crude oil is what really drives food prices higher.
All one needs to do is go to the pump, compare E15 price to gasoline with no ethanol. Then tell me ethanol raises the price. Pure bunk, across the board.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the shortcomings of E15 in this article are greatly exaggerated. Virtually all experts in the field agree that ethanol fuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The latest values from the national laboratories show that ethanol has over 40% lower greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline. The idea that fuel ethanol raises the cost of food has been so thoroughly debunked it fits into the category of urban myths. And as for fuel economy, E15, because of its higher octane rating, can actually improve the fuel economy of some vehicles. As I tell my kids, nothing is what it first appears to be. Critical thinkers dig deeper.
I guess we don’t have to wonder if Big Oil paid you to write this because you actually work for them–no surprises here! Who should people trust more – one of the richest, most polluting industries on the planet or a relatively small clean energy industry? Take all of this info. with a grain of salt folks, because the oil industry is the one losing marketshare to biofuels. All of these tired myths have been proven wrong years ago (just google for yourself.) Consider this – if you’re a 100-year-old business suddenly losing marketshare, wouldn’t you do whatever you could to squash that competitor? Including badmouthing and giving it a black eye using any gullible 3rd party spokesperson you could find every chance you got? Well, most respectful businesses would not choose that course of action, but Big Oil does. Sounds a lot like politics to me. Go back to your ivory towers built with black gold and stop whining.
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