Why isn't solar energy development getting the political subsidy that ethanol producing corn growers are getting?

Ethanol. It's here to stay. That's what marine dealers were told recently, so "you'd better get used to it". With what I, and others, label as questionable and political motives, the Environmental Protection Agency, aka EPA, approved even an higher alcohol content for gasoline.

As I have noted, time and again, this stuff is wreaking havoc with outboard motors. Fresh off the shelf, it's bad enough, burning hotter in engines not designed for rocket fuel. And, when it sets around in gas tanks, as is common for boats, it breaks down into gasoline and alcohol. To refresh, the alcohol absorbs moisture (water, ya'll), and messes up your gas lines and carbs. Outboard motor mechanics, far and wide, point to this gasahol as one of the leading causes of outboard motor problems.

Ok, as I opened with, "it's here to stay". Only it's going to get worse. The EPA has authorized/encouraged distributors to sell mixtures of 15% alcohol instead of the current 10%.

Oh, goodie.

It's an effort to wean us off our dependency on oil. Not a bad long range plan, and we've got to start somewhere. Somehow. The "somehow"makes me a little suspicious, 'cause that's how I am. Can't help it. With such political pressure behind the EPA's decisions, I must wonder who's making money that we don't know about.

Take a look at this table. You may have to increase your "viewing"size to 150%, or more (I did).



A couple numbers caught my eye. The government (that means a group of elected/appointed bureaucrats, likely folks with little or NO business sense, and I question whether common sense is involed) has decided that the production of ETHANOL should receive a subsidy (from tax dollars) of

$5.72 for each BTU produced. Ok, sounds like nothing but a random number that we don't know anything about, right? Well, yeah...exactly right. I can't visualize what that means any more than I can visualize what $14-TRILLION bucks looks like (our current, as of yesterday, national debt...the amount we're in the red).

But, when you look at the subsidy, on the same chart, that the development of solar energy gets ($2.82 for the same amount of generated BTU's), you just gotta wonder. Solar energy. It's, for the most part, free. Doesn't take corn off the dinner table, either. We just need to be able to throw a saddle on it. It's there. Every day. Free for the taking. Yep, the saddle's gonna cost some bucks. But, if we would channel the combined subsidies for ethanol development plus the current solar subsidy, the sun-energy project would get three times what it's currently getting. It stands to reason that we would be moving towards more advanced solar production THREE TIMES as fast as we are now.

Not to mention, boat owners, antique car buffs, and others would not have to go to expensive extremes to be able to enjoy their hobbies.

Likely, solar energy development WILL get more money, just as soon as the aforementioned bureaucrats figure out how to line their pockets with the subsidies.

That's my opinion. Might be mine alone. But, I don't think so.