"THE ETHONAL BOONDOGGLE" -- (POSTED 11-2-09)

by Rick Shaffer 2. November 2009 12:39
We have, many times on this page and on The Money Show, pointed out and complained about the disingenuousness and hypocrisy of radical environmentalist in general, and those politicians who try (and far too often succeed) in putting such radical environmentalism into law (the laws themselves replete with dishonest or incomplete science and hypocrisies, which ultimately costs citizens money in numerous ways - i.e. lost jobs, more expensive products and higher taxes).  Following is a Wall Street Journal editorial which points details one such  of such, an example having, not surprisingly, to do with one of radical environmentalists' (non-pols and pols alike) favorite 'environment saving' fuel - ethanol 

 

REVIEW & OUTLOOK - [Wall Street Journal Editorial]OCTOBER 29, 2009 Sins of Emission The ethanol boondoggle is also an environmental catastrophe.

  Donning FDR's cape, Eisenhower's stripes and JFK's boat shoes, President Obama observed in Florida on Tuesday that his "clean energy economy" will require "mobilization" on the order of fighting World War II, building the interstate highway system and going to the moon. Of course, the only "mobilization" going on at the moment is on behalf of ethanol, whose many political dispensations the biofuels lobby is finding new ways to preserve even as the evidence of its destructiveness piles up.

 The latest embarrassment arrives via the peer-reviewed journal Science, not known for its right-wing inclinations. A new paper calls attention to what the authors (led by Princeton's Tim Searchinger) call "a critical accounting error" in the way carbon emissions from biofuels are measured in climate-change programs world-wide. Bernie Madoff had a few critical accounting errors too.

 Though you won't hear it from the biofuels lobby, ethanol actually generates the same amount of greenhouse gas as fossil fuels, or more, per unit of energy. But this was still supposed to be better than coal or oil because ethanol's CO2 is "recycled." Since plants absorb and store carbon that is already in the atmosphere, burning them as fuel would create no new emissions, whereas fossil fuels release CO2 that has been buried for millions of years.

 With everything supposedly balancing out, the cap-and-trade programs run by the United Nations and European Union-and maybe soon the U.S.-treat biofuels as carbon-neutral. The Science study argues that this is a false economy, because it doesn't consider changes in land use. If mature forests are cleared to make room for biofuel-growing farms, then the carbon that would otherwise accumulate in those forests ought to be counted on ethanol's balance sheet as well.

 Cap-and-trade programs exacerbate the problem because developed countries (where emissions are putatively capped) get credit for reductions from ethanol-despite the fact that their biofuels are generally grown in developing countries (where emissions aren't capped). So if Malaysians burn down a rain forest to grow palm oil that ends up in German biodiesel, Malaysia doesn't count the land-use emissions and Germany doesn't count the tail-pipe emissions.

 Given these incentives, the authors cite a study showing that by 2050, "based solely on economic considerations, bioenergy could displace 59% of the world's natural forest cover. . . . The reason: When bioenergy from any biomass is counted as carbon neutral, economics favor large-scale land conversion for bioenergy regardless of the actual net emissions." In other words, not only is cap and trade self-defeating on its own terms but it also risks creating a genuine ecological disaster.

 By way of a solution, Mr. Searchinger and his coauthors modestly suggest doing away with the regulatory three-card monte and counting net ethanol emissions from where they are actually emitted. But this is political heresy on Rep. Henry Waxman's Energy and Commerce Committee, which passed its own cap-and-tax program in July with the votes of farm-state Democrats, because the bill all but banned the Environmental Protection Agency from studying land-use changes. So much for letting "the science" guide public policy.

 In Florida, Mr. Obama said the only people who could oppose his climate plan are "those who are afraid of the future." On this one, at least, the President is right.

 Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A20 

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Rick Shaffer brings “The Money Show” to 96.9 WTKK, Boston's Talk Evolution each Saturday Afternoon from 1PM - 4PM. Then on Sunday from 9AM – NOON, Rick Shaffer and Susan Kaplan reprise the Money Show where they discuss everything from finance and investment to real estate and law.

Shaffer, an attorney with the law firm of Andrews & Updegraph and a graduate of both Boston College and Northeastern University School of Law, has hosted “The Money Show” since 1991. He has also been a regular guest and contributing financial expert on various programs on New England Cable News, WLVI-TV and other local television stations, and has been a financial, real estate and business writer for the Middlesex News, the Boston Herald, the Boston Globe and S&P Personal Wealth.

Susan Kaplan is a Certified Financial Planner and is the president of Kaplan Financial Services in Wellesley. For the past four years, Worth Magazine has named Kaplan one of the top 200 financial planners in the country and she has been featured in Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street and Mutual Fund publications.

In 2006, Barron’s named Susan as one of the top 100 Women Financial Advisors in the country. Susan has also been named by Boston Magazine as one of the top 10 financial advisors in Boston (March 2006) and inducted into the 2003 Advisor Hall of Fame by Research Magazine. Susan has been chosen by Worth Magazine as one of the top 100 financial planners in the country for six years. She has been chosen by Medical Economics in the past five consecutive years as one of the best 100 financial advisors for doctors.

Susan has been featured in Louis Rukeyser’s Wall Street and Mutual Fund publications as well as numerous other financial journals. She has appeared on Bloomberg News, CNBC, WGBH, and Channels 4, 5, and 7. She has been asked to speak on investments at several major national meetings and has also been chosen to do Money Makeovers for the Boston Globe. She was a presenter at the CNBC / Fidelity Money Show for two years in a row. She co-hosts the radio show, The Money Show, on WTKK – 96.9 FM every Sunday morning.

 

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