Is there nothing that Obama can’t do?
When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.
But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.
In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.
“It belies logic,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, said of the 2011 quota. And raising the quota for 2012 when there is no production makes even less sense, he said.
I think Drevna means it “defies” logic.
How long before Northof60 breezes in with some inane comment to the effect that “cellulosic ethanol isn’t made from French-fry grease?”
Hint: it’s a metaphor, same as “stinkin’ giant fans.”
“Bricks Without Straw” comes to mind. Lots to unpack in that thought.
Wait! Wait!
Dildo McDinky and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture will fly to their rescue!
Why don’t they use marijuana plants from Canada or poppie pods from Afghanistan?
By 2014, fuel must also contain 40% free range unicorn urine, 25% ground organically harvested Dodo feathers, and 35% recycled, fair trade Pixie dust.
It’s just another wealth distribution method.
Right or wrong has nothin’ to do with it.
It’s gonna be an interesting election year….like interesting times from the old chinese curse.
Kyre elison…..
Hint:
The purpose of the law/regulation is to levy fines not to make better use of a resource.
Grok — just one thing wrong, you should make them add up to more than 100% to get the full flavour of their absurdity ;o)
They got fined for failing to use something that doesn’t exist?!? BRLLIANT!
Next up from the EPA will be a regulation forcing fuel companies to also include “renewable rainbows” and “carbon neutral unicorn farts” in their fuels as well.
This was not unusual in the Old Soviet Union where they had insane quotas to meet in production. Everyone played along pretending the madness of the production forced on them looked real on paper because it was humanly impossible to meet the governments standards.
This is what happens when your government is divorced from an sane connection with reality.
The Obamaites , most of whom have never worked like to pretends fantasy above any solid reality. Least their ideology is questioned.
The functionaries of this use fines to cover up the audaciousness of the fake targets, by fines. Than vilify the producers as slackers or intransigent saboteurs.
There are billions of barrels of the stuff. You just have to drill for it and pump it out of the ground.
A countries worst enemy…..its own government.
Revnant, I had the same thought about the Soviet production plans. I also remembered the Soviet-era workers’ lament: they pretent to pay us, and we pretend to work.
Today, in Obama’s Amerika, Democrats pretend to be making laws for the benefit of the under-advantaged, and their fellow-travellers in the media pretend the laws aren’t simply war against property and human rights waged by other means.
Whoa. Hopefully the Obama administration doesn’t watch some old Star Trek episodes and start demanding the use of dilithium crystals and the hiring of only engineers that speak with a Scottish accent.
“Can you prove we didn’t add the additives?”
“Yes, since they don’t exist!”
“I rest my case.”
In the old Soviet Union the one saving grace was that everyone was corrupt, and payoffs were often possible. I bet you are going to tell me that the one incorruptible part of the present US regime are the enforcement people in the Treasury.
In the FSU it also helped (a lot!) to have politically well-connected managers for an enterprise. Same here, as has been amply documented. It is a pity that the oil and gas industry is not well connected with Bambi and his people.
As Revnant Dream points out, we’ve seen this all before — “failure to recognize socialist reality”, “wrecking”, “sabotage”, “parasitism”, and the great catch all, “counter revolutionary agitation”.
Is this how a great nation dies..?
Jane UK.
the inedible parts of plants like corncobs Please don’t tell the cows eating corn this! They might quit eating the stuff! Or not 😉
mojo at 5:06 PM
you would make a fine fine prosecutor!!!
What a great way to extort money from companies!
I agree with all the comments about the stupidity of this process, and that laws ARE in fact made to be broken (as many philosophers, from Orwell to Ellsworth Toohey have noted, when you create so many laws that to live one must be criminal, it’s easier to control people).
But.. at $370 billion in annual revenues, Exxon (alone) has revenues of over $11,000 per second. $6.8 million annually is about a quarter of a cent per second. Somehow, I don’t think anyone in the oil industry is really upset about this.
Just like in Russia before their whole system imploded…a tractor factory complete whith production figures….inventory…but did not exist…not even an outhouse on the land…sounds familiar….///
It’s a pleasant surprise that the otherwise inept Obama administration had the good sense to kill the subsidy on dirty corn ethanol fuel. It was insanely stupid for America to borrow money from China to give to the industrial agricultural multinational corporations that grow corn for ethanol fuel.
By some estimates the total gifts to corn ethanol business totalled $45B USD since 1980.
http://www.dailytech.com/Federal+Govt+Finally+Kills+6B+USD+Corn+Ethanol+Subsidy/article23593.htm
This reminds of the small, iron producing shops in China who were given production quotas by Mao, but were not provided with iron ore with which to make the iron. As a short-term solution, the shops melted down their tools to meet their first few quotas.
Make an unreasonable demand. Watch manufacturers destroy themselves trying to do the impossible. Clearly the EPA needs to jack-up their fines. The producers aren’t really feeling the heat, yet.
Import the hootch from China……
This would make a great lawsuit, if anyone had the guts to file the complaint. This clearly violates the takings clause. It’s not a tax on production – it’s a fine for failing to do the impossible.