Trent Loos
Columnist
As a kid I was fascinated with magicians; so much so that my folks actually bought me an entire magic kit and I would perform tricks for anyone who gave me the attention I needed. It turns out that there is no such thing as “magic” but only a distraction of your attention for a split second that allows things to be different than it appears they really are. It also turns out that magicians are still at it and, in this case, I am referencing those that put on a tie and go to DC every Monday. The majority of today’s policymakers would make even Houdini himself jealous.
This past weekend my U.S. Congressman from Nebraska was hard at it in his weekly distraction that he called “Reviving Energy Affordability.” For example he said this:
Because of the importance of biofuels to Nebraska’s economy and energy abundance, I supported inclusion of a provision in the House-passed reconciliation package to extend and improve the 45Z biofuels production tax credit through 2031. This measure directly supports farmers in the Third District and equips producers with the certainty to invest and power the future of sustainable aviation fuel and other clean transportation fuel.
Okay, let’s break this down. The distraction is the importance of ethanol to Nebraska and the overall economy but FACT: In Nebraska alone, as he also said in his weekly piece, ethanol generates $8.18 billion in sales. No doubt that is important. What he distracts you from in the magic show is that currently the big oil industry makes more money per gallon of ethanol sold than the farmer does. Stop and think for a moment, big oil is responsible for pricing and distribution. So when would the product they produce cost at the pump between 30-50 cents more per gallon? Say it with me: TAX CREDITS.
Right of out the chute let’s ask the real question: who needs a tax credit? Only the wealthy of the world like Warren Buffett, who regularly brags about the tax credits he and Berkshire Hathaway receive annually. To make matters worse, if these folks got a subsidy payment they at least would have to pay tax on the payment but instead a tax credit is a deduction when means it is worth double the value of a subsidy payment. Every time someone from DC talks about supporting the bio-fuels industry it involves a tax credit, usually 45Q or 45Z. They are bankrupting the American Public while not providing them more affordable energy or fuel.
What Smith is really saying, without saying it, is this Reconciliation Bill supports continued funding of things like compressing CO2 into a pipeline and sending it 1.5 miles deep into earth. It has now come to my attention that in order for the ethanol plant to compress the CO2 to 2200 PSI, they must use 50% equivalent of the energy produced by that ethanol plant. To make matters worse, that is 1/3 of the energy required to bury it deep into the earth. So just a little Cowboy Arithmetic says that it costs 200% of the energy produced to make carbon sequestration below ground happen.
Adrian Smith says dangerous CO2 pipelines are currently being buried all over your 3rd district and your constituents are being told “Pipelines are safe.” CO2 pipelines are not the same as all other pipelines. CO2 is the very element used to kill pigs, turkeys and chickens in new processing facilities. Depending on a variety of parameters, the kill zone for all living things can be up to 6 miles and this odorless, colorless gas coming out of a compressed pipeline will expand up to 500 times it’s state in the Super Critical pipeline that is being built.
We don’t need to generate theories on this, we have documentation. Last week I had a broadcast with Jack Willingham who is the Emergency Management Director for Yazoo County, Mississippi where they had a CO2 pipeline rupture on Feb 20, 2020. Jack called it “a perfect storm” and luckily no lives were lost but nearly 80 people were hospitalized. He told me that the plume model given to them by the construction company was absolutely incorrect. For the record, that CO2 sequestration company is no longer in business. Folks need to understand that CO2 is 1.5 times heavier than air whereas natural gas is 0.5 times as heavy. That means that natural gas goes straight up while CO2 crawls on the ground like a snake, sucking the oxygen out of anything in its path.
I must give a major tip of my hat to Jack Willingham as he recognizes the most grave danger with CO2 pipelines is the risk to all of the first responders who have not been educated or equipped with life saving skills. Jack has organized training systems in Mississippi to let the firefighters and EMT’s know that CO2 will kill you in 2 minutes with a concentration of 5% if you are not prepared and take precautions.
Back to where I started, the magicians are asking us to look in their left hand at the tax credit benefits to the corporations who pilfer the public for profit while he DOES NOT HAVE ONE FIRST RESPONDER CREW THAT REALIZES THEY ARE IN A WHOLE NEW LINE OF FIRE.
