SUBSIDIES in BIODIESEL are THE NEW RIP-OFF

[AZXD]

It's amazing what you find when you're bored
Reading the Junk Science: Greens Thwart Gasoline Production thread caused me to go looking for a stupid picture .....

A google search for GreenPeace Sucks gets me to a blog reporting that a Canadian company has a line of Green Sex Products - Click for the hell of it, I'm bored - Have a few laughs, then see a link, and Click it! - This takes me to TreeHugger where I find the following article.

Biodiesel Dumping Accusations Could Spark US-EU Trade Row

by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 06.13.08


photo by Jason Trommetter

Not too much concrete on this one yet, so file it in the something to watch category: European biodiesel producers are urging the European commission to levy punitive duties on imports of US biodiesel. The claim is that US subsidies are distorting the ability of European producers to compete. The US exported to the EU 7,000 tonnes of biodiesel in 2005, a figure which has risen to 1 million tonnes in 2007.

“We have a lower and lower use of capacity simply because we cannot compete with people who are flooding our market because of unfair subsidies,” European Biodiesel Board secretary general Raffaello Garofalo was quoted in The Guardian as saying.


Garafalo went on to say that refineries in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK were under threat from the alleged dumping. D1 Oils , the UK-based biodiesel firm which is banking on Jatropha, closed its two UK refineries in April and laid off all staff there. In their 2007 interim report D1 stated that the $1/gallon US biodiesel subsidy, which when combined with existing EU subsidies was creating a “double dip” situation which makes it “difficult for the EU to develop a robust biodiesel refinery industry.”

An official EC investigation has begun to determine whether to levy duties against these imports, the results of which must be completed by March 13 of next year. The US has threatened to take the issue to the World Trade Organization and file a counter-complaint.
via :: The Guardian

So I'm like WTF

Why are we sending our food source overseas in the form of BioDiesel

Then I see this.

American Taxpayers Pay in Biofuel "Splash and Dash" Scam

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 04. 2.08

TreeHugger noted earlier that dumping of US made and subsidized biofuels was wrecking the UK refinining industry. It gets worse; it is in fact a scam called "splash and dash", taking advantage of the $1 per gallon biofuel subsidy.
1) Bring a tankerload of, say, Malaysian palm oil to the US.
2) add a splash of diesel oil, say 9,000 gallons to 9 million gallons of biofuel, or 0.1%.
3) Tag the whole batch as biofuel, collect nine million bucks, and ship it off to the UK because the US is awash in biodiesel because of the subsidy.

But nobody is doing anything about it because all the soybean growers love the subsidy, and some biodiesel producers are even importing palm oil for American distribution because of it. So much for "energy independence" and "free markets" ::Christian Science Monitor

Why the hell isn't this on the nightly news ???

I've never really cared for GreenPeace, the TreeHugger movement and all their save the planet crap, block shipping, tie it all up in legislation, etcetera .... But they do post some interesting stories that IMO the average American citizen would be pi$$ed about if it was public knowledge.

I guess with our high gas prices we have developed subsidies that are being intentionally abused and we are footing the bill for that as we also get raped at the gas pump.

[Powerman]

Capitalism at it's finest. Gotta love American inginuity.

[AZXD]

It's like everything else we subsidize .... Someone takes advantage of the situation.
It does suck that we are footing the bill on this one though.

Originally Posted by Powerman

Capitalism at it's finest. Gotta love American inginuity.