Very indirectly, at least, and only for a couple of lucky turkeys.
Today, President Bush granted two turkeys full presidential pardons to “May” and “Flower” at the yearly Thanksgiving pardon.
The reason why this makes ethanol news is because these two turkeys were brought to the ceremony in a Flex-fueled Ford F-150. Ford explained that the F-150 used to transport the two turkeys was fueled with E85.
Ford is supporting the use and production of alternative renewable fuels such as ethanol. Ford also promises to make millions of vehicles that run on E85 as a way of reducing U.S. dependency on importing oil from overseas. When Congress returns from its Thanksgiving holiday in December, it is expected to review an energy bill that increases the required fuel efficiency of vehicles by as much as 40 percent, or 35 miles per gallon.
This bill is most likely a long shot but perhaps we should begin to say good bye to our Hummers.
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I wouldn't say that it is costing us billions of dollars- last year about 2.2 billion was paid out for ethanol incentives, but we need to subtract out all of the taxes that the plants paid in to the government: 5.5 billion, and also subtract out the reduction in farm payments, due largely to better grain prices because of ethanol: about 8 billion. Hmmmm- seems like a pretty good return on investment to me!