U.S. Department of Energy. 2017a. “September 2017 Monthly Energy Review.” Washington, DC: U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2017. Accessed Oct. 17.
A report from the U.S. Department of Energy through the Energy Information Administration detailed the most recent government statistics on national energy consumption, sources, and other information regarding energy production and usage. The primary purpose of the report is not to answer a specific question, but to provide accurate information on past and current economic and statistical usage of various forms of energy; including ethanol. The primary methods used for the findings lay within federal oversight of imports, energy companies, power plants, and other heavily regulated
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Based on the information in table 1.4a, one can determine that the average annual total petroleum imports for 2007 to 2016 is 23.8024 Quadrillion Btu. One can also determine that while the monthly price spent on gasoline is fairly low compared to the price of Residential electricity, at 15.71 dollars per million Btu (including taxes), it still suggests that gasoline represents a large part of consumer spending, and that consumers rely heavily on it. The report can also be extrapolated to infer that while the amount of overall carbon emissions in 2016 is lower than the average emissions between 2007 and 2016, it suggests that there is much room for improvement.
Babcock, Bruce, and Wei Zhou. “Impact on Corn Prices from Reduced Biofuel Mandates.” Center for Agricultural and Rural Development. 2013.:
The article sought to determine the impact of reduced government mandates regarding biofuel on corn prices. This is particularly important, not only to appease both petroleum industry representatives as well as organizations protecting hunger and public health initiatives, but also to create a stable environment in which the energy sector can grow and thrive. The researchers used a new model of corn and RIN--a term related to renewable energy products--markets, in order to predict the consequences of two possible ethanol
Thirdly, the cost of biofuel is high because its production and infrastructural cost is humongous. To create biofuel, large tracts of land need to be cleared for setting up the plant. This is not feasible because of global economic meltdown whose one major disadvantage is the rising food prices. If the land that could be better used for producing the much needed food crops, there is no need to use the same land for generating biofuels (FAO 07). Furthermore, the cost of establishing and running a biofuel plant runs into billions. Where would the money come from? Of course, the people have to pay for them, doubly, first for purchasing biofuel and secondly in the form of taxes. Ironically, the common man cannot afford such expenses given the current economic situation, which if not controlled will create more problems in the future like unemployment, an issue more important than debating biofuels and diesel fuels (Stern 07).
Corn is a versatile crop, and that is why we grow so much of it. However, many people believe that corn should be used as a system and not as American agriculture. Due to this, people think this is the problem with food prices increase and causing hardship problems. I’m here to tell you the facts about corn ethanol is far more greater in negativity and that corn ethanol is being put into bad use.
Although a 2002 agriculture law superseded many parts of FAIRA, acreage was still increased because of the growing demand for corn in animal feed, the need for corn in ethanol manufacturing, and the increased possibility to make food with corn byproducts. These seem to be good and fair reasons to focus our efforts on increasing output, however, the same issue arises: the more corn that is made, the less stable a livelihood farming becomes, regardless of the subsidies that the federal government provides.
Pollan argues that “... taxpayers will pay farmers $4 billion a year to grow ever more corn, this despite the fact that we struggle to get rid of the surplus the plant already produces” (para. 4). This explains that many of the farmers are getting paid more to just grow corn and to over grow them. Pollan vocalizes that “America's corn crop might look like a sustainable, solar-powered system for producing food, but it is actually a huge, inefficient, polluting machine that guzzles fossil fuel..”(Para 12). The corn needs a lot of gas to keep the production going which cause a lot of pollution in the world and, also globe warning. Consumer don't know what type of food or beverages have corn in them most of them don’t even know where their meat or what the animals are being feed because the government is hiding that away from them. Overall, this causes a lot of problems to the next generation and the government still only wants to make money out of the over growing of
This article written in the Texas Agriculture, a magazine published by the Texas Farm Bureau, is about all the factors impacting farmers that effect their income. Over the past couple years, a combination of things has caused the average Texas farmers income to drop. The primary audience for this article is the farmers in Texas as they are experiencing these issues first hand. The secondary audience would be consumers who have noticed price fluctuations in products at the store and are wondering the reason.
Pollan points out how much the United States pushes for farmers to grow corn by giving them subsidies and paying them directly for the corn they produce, even though there’s much more of a supply for corn than there is a demand. Two companies, Cargill and ADM, buy one third of all corn produced in the United States, and are also involved in almost every step of the corn production process. They control most of America’s grain elevators, give fertilizers to farmers, distill ethanol, and make high fructose corn syrup. They also lobby to Congress, so they get to make many rules regarding corn production, meaning that just these two companies have considerable influence over what we
Seeing as 47.6 million US constituents receive SNAP benefits and have products like soda and candy so readily available, having such products taken away will be detrimental to the demand of sugar. With the implementation of the new bill the demand for sugar will decrease in the short run, as shown in figure 1.02. This drop in demand causes a decrease in price and quantity in the short run as well. Similarly, in the long run there will be a decrease in supply, causing a decrease in quantity but an increase in price, as demonstrated in figure 1.02. This new bill will harm the sugar market due to the decrease in demand in the short run and decrease in supply in the long run. Hence, demonstrating how the alterations to the US Farm Bill will affect the price and quantity of sugar sold in the short and long
Farm subsidies help farmers to keep the prices of their products low and competitive in the international market. This means that national farmers and their products receive sufficient support and revenue to keep them in business. If this were not the case, there is a danger that retailers will begin to find foreign markets from which to important even basic foods such as corn and meat. The danger here is then that many American
The farmers of our state have asked that we introduce legislation to provide subsidies for soybeans. Unfortunately, we will have to turn down their request. If we give subsidies to the soybean farmers, then the corn and wheat growers will ask for the same thing. Then it will be the cotton growers, citrus growers, truck farmers, and cattle raisers. In the end, the cost will be astronomical.
In this research essay the article “Farmers Get Biggest Subsidy Check in Decade as Prices drop,” written by Alan Bjerga. The article brings forward the pressing issues of the agriculture downturn of prices in the United States of America. The article reviews crop surplus and reduced income in terms of the drop of agriculture prices. The article also touches on the fact that the united sates of America agriculture system needs more aid to provide safety for net farmers.
Breamer, J. (2009). Demand for corn and soybeans continue in 2010. High Plains Journal, (53), Retrieved from http://www.hpj.com/archives/2009/dec09/dec28/1228CropOutlookwspeakerpicj.cfm
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (2015) reports that the United States consumed approximately 19.4 million barrels of petroleum products daily, which calculated to an overall total of 7.08 billion barrels by the end of 2015 (para. 2). The United States population consumes a huge quantity of oil alone, in addition to all of the other fossil fuels that it also greatly depends on. Fossil fuels are a natural resource that is in limited supply, and they provide an efficient and consistent supply of power to communities all over the planet. Many people are pleased with the short-term advantages these
With American population expected to increase by approximately fifty percent over the next fifty years, some sort of energy reform is needed (Lehrman 2). The most commonly proposed idea is for America to stop relying so heavily on fossil fuels, and to turn its focus onto renewable sources of energy, such as solar power and hydroelectricity (Energy Information Administration). If the United States could realize the benefits of renewable energy, then much of the world’s energy problems could be solved.
The US consumed 142 billion gallons of gasoline in 2007 and the tax applied on it is 18. 4 cents on one gallon. All around the US, there are around 162,000 retail gasoline outlets. With the price of crude oil hovering around $100 a barrel, it is no wonder that concern is growing about the gas prices being so high. After all, modern economies are kept moving by this lifeblood. For instance, in the United States alone personal vehicles consume more than 140 billion gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline per year.However, there are several factors that contribute to the gas prices being so high. Given below are a few of them. Increasing Demand for Oil One of the main catalysts for the incessant rise in gas prices has been one of the most
Transportation is the reason behind why the US is still the world’s largest producer and exporter of corn by accounting for 50 percent of the world’s corn trade each year. The production and consumption demand determine the transportation demand. Considering corn is the primary feed grain consumed in farms, this means that 96 percent of all feed grain production is corn. The corn produced in the US derives from seven states and from these states is shipped by rail, barge, and truck to feedlots, feed mills, ethanol refineries, and ports for export. For means of corn transportation, corn exporters depend on mainly rail and barge services, while domestic corn movements are typically handled by trucks. Between the years 2007-2011, trucks were responsible for transporting 7 percent of domestically used corn. Rail transportation was responsible for moving an average of 21 percent of domestic corn movements, which decreased between the years 2007-2010 from 26 percent to 19 percent. Overall, as food, seed, and industrial use for corn increased by 293 percent, the demand for corn increased by 57 percent, which would explain increases in corn transportation. More specifically, the increase in truck transportation came about from the increased demand for ethanol. Most ethanol plants are located 50 miles within the range of corn-producing areas, (United States Department of Agriculture, 2014). The transportation of wet distillers grains (WDG) is only economically viable