Once in a while, I run across an essay that sums up things so perfectly I share it with readers. Yesterday, I ran across a short piece by Patrick Barron, and got his permission to share some of it. Highlights added:
ENERGY HYSTERIA AND CRACKPOT ECONOMICS
“The nation is being swept by the mass hysteria of energy independence. And like all hysteria, the nation will perform acts of tremendous irrationality before the disease runs its course. Let’s just hope that the patient survives not only the disease but the crackpot cures as well.
Folks, we are being bamboozled. The alternatives to oil are neither better nor cheaper.
Take ethanol, for example. The only way ethanol can gain entry to the wider fuel market is through massive government subsidies in the form of government sponsored ethanol research, tax incentives, and outright mandates for its use. (Note: Some of this information may be new to many of us:) Ethanol is a less useful product than gasoline. It cannot be piped in large quantities throughout the nation, as can gasoline. It must be carried in trucks. It corrodes many engine parts. It contains only three-fourths of the energy value of gasoline, so by requiring that it be mixed with gasoline at the pump the government debases our gasoline just as it debases our currency. We consumers will be taxed and coerced into using a less useful product in order to line the pockets of the farm lobby and companies like Archer Daniels Midland. If ethanol were truly a superior product, we would willingly buy it without being forced to do so.
Unfortunately, we can look forward, if that is the right phrase, to more proposals like ethanol subsidies and bribes to auto companies to get us out of a non-existent energy predicament. Here’s my crackpot idea—do nothing. Let the free market direct our energy producing efforts. It has always worked in the past and will always work in the future. No tax required.”
