Ethanol more costly, less efficient                                                                 
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June 24, 2020

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

EPA biofuel mandates don’t make sense
Did you know that adding corn into oil based gasoline actually increases the cost of that gas over non-blended gasoline? How about the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency’s own data shows that refiners had to rely on 481 million gallons of foreign fuel to meet the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard mandate in the United States in 2019?  America achieves energy independence, yet is still compelled by outdated federal rules to buy foreign fuel to meet an arbitrary mandate. And just one more, did you know that the National Wildlife Federation wrote a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency supporting reducing ethanol blending requirements due to the findings in an EPA produced, “comprehensive report to Congress in 2018 that outlined the negative environmental impacts of biofuel production.” And yet in spite of the environmental harm, increased cost (estimated at $1.80 more per gallon for bio-diesel), and the reliance on foreign producers of biofuels, the EPA persists in a misguided effort to push ethanol production standards which exceed what is known as the “blendwall” or the amount of ethanol that can currently be blended into the domestic gasoline supply.

Cartoon: Toppled
John Bolton destroys his own legacy.

Video: Antifa tries to take Washington, D.C. and John Bolton pulls down his own statue with book
ALG President Rick Manning speaks out on Antifa trying to tear down the Andrew Jackson statue. He also has some choice words for John Bolton.

Not disavowing the radical left is dangerous for Democrats as 72 percent oppose defund the police
The Democrat Party’s alliance with the radical left is unraveling before our eyes as ‘defund the police’ reverberates across the nation amidst tumbling monuments, mass property destruction and violence including two shootings in Seattle’s six-block occupied zone. Baffled liberal mayors are standing by, unsure how to quell the violent mobs growing in their jurisdictions, but a newly released Harvard Caps/Harris poll shows a majority of Americans want law and order to be reestablished. The poll shows Americans want monuments protected, police funding to stay the same or increase, Seattle’s ‘Autonomous Zone’ reclaimed, and think using the National Guard or the U.S. Military to reestablish order would be a good idea.

Ken Blackwell: Slaughter of Blacks Is Reality in Democrat-Run Cities
Ken Blackwell: “The real systemic and deadly reality is that black men and women are being slaughtered in cities and communities of color across the country in numbers that can only be compared to war zones in Iraq and Syria. Every single one of those cities have been run by Democrats, and in some cases, [for] as long as 40 years. [Kerik and I] just took exception to the fact that these mayors were passing the buck. These local officials were passing a buck.”


EPA biofuel mandates don’t make sense

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By Rick Manning

Did you know that adding corn into oil based gasoline actually increases the cost of that gas over non-blended gasoline?

How about the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency’s own data shows that refiners had to rely on 481 million gallons of foreign fuel to meet the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard mandate in the United States in 2019?  America achieves energy independence, yet is still compelled by outdated federal rules to buy foreign fuel to meet an arbitrary mandate.

And just one more, did you know that the National Wildlife Federation wrote a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency supporting reducing ethanol blending requirements due to the findings in an EPA produced, “comprehensive report to Congress in 2018 that outlined the negative environmental impacts of biofuel production.”

And yet in spite of the environmental harm, increased cost (estimated at $1.80 more per gallon for bio-diesel), and the reliance on foreign producers of biofuels, the EPA persists in a misguided effort to push ethanol production standards which exceed what is known as the “blendwall” or the amount of ethanol that can currently be blended into the domestic gasoline supply.

These overly aggressive mandates force our nation’s oil refiners to purchase compliant fuel from foreign companies to achieve Renewable Fuel Standard compliance increasing our national trade deficit.

To put this in even simpler terms, the EPA is forcing U.S. companies to buy foreign produced bio-mass fuels in order to meet an artificial government created quota, and ethanol isn’t even good for the environment.

President Trump has been at the forefront of cutting absurd and harmful regulations and has doubled down on this effort as our nation enters into an economic recovery phase after the devastating job losses due to the shutdowns caused by the reaction to the Chinese-originated virus. 

In a May 19, 2020 Cabinet meeting the President said, “With millions of Americans forced out of work by the virus, it's more important than ever to remove burdens that destroy American jobs.” 

He continued by instructing his Cabinet officials to use emergency authority to speed up regulation cuts or move forward with “new rules that will create jobs and prosperity and get rid of unnecessary rules and regulations.”

These are pretty clear instructions directly from the President to his Cabinet Secretaries, including EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.

Right now, due to the COVID-19 economic downturn, many U.S. oil producers have turned off the spigot for the foreseeable future due to oil price instability, yet, domestic oil refiners are having to not only cut the amount of oil-based fuel used in gasoline to meet RFS rules but pay foreign refiners to import more fuel partially made from food.

What’s more, the virus crisis has caused the United Nations to estimate that 42 million to 66 million more children worldwide could fall into extreme poverty, noting that in 2019 some 386 million children were already in extreme poverty.  And yet, somehow the regulators at the EPA continue to insist that America’s cars burn food rather than fuel, ensuring that acres upon acres of corn and soybeans which could have been exported to feed those who through no fault of their own find themselves in danger of starvation.

Only in Washington, D.C. could people charged with protecting the environment think that it is a good idea to mandate a product that hurts the environment, costs more money, and has to be imported, while shifting food production away from feeding starving people. It is enough to make you cry.

Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.

To view online: http://dailytorch.com/2020/06/epa-biofuel-mandates-dont-make-sense/


Cartoon: Toppled

By A.F. Branco

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Click here for a higher level resolution version.


Video: Antifa tries to take Washington, D.C. and John Bolton pulls down his own statue with book

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To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YXJvoOd1F4  


Not disavowing the radical left is dangerous for Democrats as 72 percent oppose defund the police

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By Manzanita Miller

The Democrat Party’s alliance with the radical left is unraveling before our eyes as ‘defund the police’ reverberates across the nation amidst tumbling monuments, mass property destruction and violence including two shootings in Seattle’s six-block occupied zone. Baffled liberal mayors are standing by, unsure how to quell the violent mobs growing in their jurisdictions, but a newly released Harvard Caps/Harris poll shows a majority of Americans want law and order to be reestablished. The poll shows Americans want monuments protected, police funding to stay the same or increase, Seattle’s ‘Autonomous Zone’ reclaimed, and think using the National Guard or the U.S. Military to reestablish order would be a good idea.

The unrest on the far-left that is bleeding over into everyday life has accelerated since the last presidential election, when leftists saw their preferred socialist candidate brushed aside and replaced with Hillary Clinton. Since then, dreams of dismantling capitalism, dissolving borders (and nations), and converting the United States into a Marxist utopia have been dashed. Twice now, socialist Bernie has been shuttled aside by the party elite in favor of more ‘electable’ candidates. Democrats and the mainstream media are feebly attempting to channel leftist anger exclusively toward President Trump, but the far-left is growing restless.

The Democrat Party has self-servingly attempted to jostle disenchanted leftists into line to win elections for years. But now, with neighborhoods in ruins, injuries, disappearances, and death tolls mounting, and demands to disband police and release felons from prison being taken seriously, the party is forced to face the reality of what an alliance with the far-left will cost. The far-left is determined to dismantle infrastructure, property rights, law enforcement, and any semblance of order, and erect a bizarre Soviet Style authoritarianism, complete with ‘re-education’ programs, regular random violence, and inadequate food supply chains. This is most likely not what mainstream Democrats had in mind when they decided to ‘listen’ to the demands of these radicals instead of denouncing them as the grave threats to civility that they are.

Radical demands to ‘defund the police’ and destroy historical monuments signal a serious issue for Democrats. They have overall done a poor job of separating themselves from the most radical leftwing proposals and distancing themselves from terrorist groups like antifa. While the mainstream media does their best to portray conservatives as sheet-wearing racists, the reality is conservatives do a much better job of distancing themselves from radical fringe groups bent on the destruction of civil society. Democrats on the other hand, refuse to disavow the far-left, out of vote-greed or fear. A startled Bernie Sanders relinquishing his microphone to a mob in Seattle four years ago comes to mind.

To be fair, a few Democrats have expressed modest hesitation to the systematic disbandment of the country’s police forces. Senator Corey Booker said in an NBC interview he ‘understands the sentiment’ behind the slogan, but stopped short of embracing it entirely.  Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries dodged the defund question in a CNN interview and said funding needed to be addressed on a ‘case-by-case’ basis. Speaker Pelosi declared ‘we’re not going to that place’ when probed for her position on defund in an NBC interview. Mainstream Democrats have for the most part refused to disavow the defund demands, but stopped short of committing to them. Biden appeared a lone voice of almost-reason, eventually emerging and penning an op-ed stating he didn’t agree with the defund initiative, but it is too little, too late.

Across the county, liberal mayors and city councils continue to cave to the increasingly absurd demands of a small and violent minority of ultra-leftists. The problem is, these radicals are never satisfied. One victory is never enough, they want defund, re-trials for criminals, increased racial quotas, forced sensitivity training, socialized everything. Seattle is a great example of this dichotomy, where liberal white mayor Jenny Durkan caved to a radical minority of far-leftists and banished the police from six Seattle blocks to appease them. It wasn’t enough for the ‘CHAZ’ though. Days after securing their ‘Autonomous Zone’, they descended on Durkan demanding she resign. Their latest list of 30 demands includes abolition of the entire Seattle police department, retrials for all Black inmates convicted of violent crime, Black-only segregated hospitals, socialized healthcare, anti-bias training, and an end to all forms of prison.

These proposals are simply not going to fly with a bulk of Americans. Last week, polls showed two-thirds of Americans oppose the ‘defund the police’ demand. The opposition to defund includes prized swing voters Democrats have been courting for the past four years. Fifty-eight percent of Hispanics, 54% of 18 to 29-year-olds, and 43% of African Americans oppose defund. Hispanic support for President Trump has risen significantly since the riots began three weeks ago, with recent polling showing Trump at 51% approval.

Younger Americans are often characterized as advocates of radical upheaval, but the bulk of the research on Generation Z shows young people largely oppose radical and disruptive change like that of the far-left. As shown below, only 21% of Generation Z supports ‘radical and disruptive change’.

6/span>What’s more, a new Harvard Caps/Harris poll shows a majority of Americans view the police favorably, and believe law enforcement operates fairly most of the time. Sixty-percent of Americans hold a favorable view of the police, with almost a quarter saying they hold a very favorable view. Two-thirds of Americans think the police operate fairly most of the time and we are seeing a few bad actors, 72% do not want the police defunded, and 74% think police funding should remain the same or increase, as shown below.

 

6Source: Harvard Caps/Harris poll

 

The poll also shows a majority of Americans blame protesters for the looting and riots that have rocked the country over the past month, and almost half of Americans think cities have been too soft on rioters, including 49% of Independents and 31% of Democrats. Over half of Americans think President Trump’s response to call in the National Guard to manage protests in the nation’s capital was appropriate (57%), and another 52% think deploying the U.S. military to reestablish order to cities would be appropriate. When referring to ‘CHAZ’ specifically, 65% of Americans think Mayor Durkin should reclaim the city.

Americans also oppose the symbolic gestures demanded by the left to erase the nation’s history. Sixty-five percent oppose TV Networks removing shows that feature police officers, and 77% think it was wrong for HBO to remove the film ‘Gone with the Wind’. Seventy-one percent think local governments should block protestors from destroying monuments, and 58% think statues of confederate figures should be protected. What’s more, support for Black Lives Matter itself is under 50%, and

The Democrat mainstream became far too cozy and welcoming with radical, anarchist groups, and is now in shock when these groups do not happily line up to vote for Joe Biden, and instead attempt to overthrow the United States. By refusing to disavow these terrorists, Democrats are playing a risky numbers game. They risk alienating huge numbers of independents, Hispanics, and moderate young voters, in pursuit of a sliver of hardcore leftists. Well over half of Americans prefer law and order on a multitude of issues from maintaining or increasing funding for police, to retaking Seattle, to blocking protesters from destroying monuments and

This is a hard truth for Democrats to swallow, after spending years working toward what they believed would be a fruitful alliance with the radical-left. The more violence and civil unrest Democrats tolerate – and do not unequivocally disavow – the more they will drive moderates and swing voters in the opposite direction. The Democrat mainstream has refused to stand up to the radical left for too long, and now that it is destroying the country, it will be a hard sell to the American people that they didn’t realize they were ‘listening’ to domestic terrorists.

Manzanita Miller is an associate analyst with the Market Research Foundation.

To view online: https://marketresearchfoundation.org/2020/06/23/not-disavowing-the-radical-left-is-dangerous-for-democrats/


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ALG Editor’s Note: In the following featured report from Breitbart.com, former Cincinnati Mayor Ken Blackwell says Democratic-controlled cities have turned black communities into war zones:

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Ken Blackwell: Slaughter of Blacks Is Reality in Democrat-Run Cities

By Robert Kraychik

Democrats blame the “boogeyman of systemic racism” to avoid responsibility for the volume of violent crime in black communities in cities they run, said Ken Blackwell, former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, who offered his remarks on the Wednesday edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.

“The real systemic and deadly reality is that black men and women are being slaughtered in cities and communities of color across the country in numbers that can only be compared to war zones in Iraq and Syria,” said Blackwell, reflecting on a column he wrote with former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik regarding crime in Democrat-run cities, “Every single one of those cities have been run by Democrats, and in some cases, [for] as long as 40 years. [Kerik and I] just took exception to the fact that these mayors were passing the buck. These local officials were passing a buck.”

Blackwell and Kerik wrote:

“To be clear, whether they were armed, or unarmed, or in possession of a toy that looked like a real weapon, in every single category, blacks were not killed more often than whites. Given the numbers — 14 unarmed blacks killed out of 10 million arrests, which equates to a rate of 0.00014 percent — this is NOT evidence of systemic racism.”

Blackwell remarked, “You can’t paint safety forces with a broad brush saying that they are riddled with systemic racism when the facts don’t bear that out, but what is [borne] out by the facts is that these local leaders have found some comfort in the status quo. They have embraced a narrative that pushes the blame from their incompetence [to] this boogeyman of systemic racism where it doesn’t exist.”

Black and minority communities are being “marginalized and destroyed” by Democrat policies, Blackwell determined.

Blackwell recalled the weeks of unrest following the death of George Floyd.

“Fifteen innocent civilians and two police officers were shot and killed,” Blackwell stated. “Hundreds of civilians brutally beaten, and more than 700 police officers were injured nationwide. Hundreds of millions of dollars of property have been destroyed as businesses and places for people to make money and raise their families in 42 states.”

Left-wing and Democrat characterizations of America as a “racist nation” amount to a “false narrative,” said Blackwell.

To view online: https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2020/06/22/ken-blackwell-systemic-deadly-reality-slaughter-blacks-democrat-run-cities/




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