Thu 17 Jan 2008
Taxing kills Germany’s Biodiesel Output
Posted by zhamm under Biodiesel
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Need proof that greedy government can kill biodiesel even as it says it’s promoting it? Read the article from Reuters that talks about how Germany’s government decided to increase taxes on biodiesel to the point where plants are shutting down and being dismantled and sold overseas. Nice going Ms. Merkel. Germany was among the first countries to really start producing large amounts of biodiesel and distribute it to the retail pump.
Think it can’t happen here? Don’t under-estimate Big Oil.
There’s a big push in the U.S. right now for going green, but sooner or later, the few bad apples are going to tarnish that “going green” idea and sour it for the public to where it becomes a bad name. Watch. If it does happen, then pressure from the wrong types might persuade government to stop subsidies for biofuels and the whole system will collapse. We depend on tax subsidies and government endorsements. Oh, yeah, just like petroleum products do too…
It’s sheer stupidity that we keep having to remind people that we’re running out of petroleum, and that biofuels aren’t a cute idea as an “alternative fuel”. I wish people would stop calling it that. They should be called “Next Fuels”, because quite simply, we’re running out of petroleum. And like the stupid upright walking monkeys we are, we’re burning it instead of using it to make plastics, medicine, fertilizer, lubricants and other useful things like that.
Want to tax something? Then put a $500 tax on every barrel of oil and treat it as a chemical resource rather than something you’re going to burn. You can call it “petroleum hydrocarbon foundation chemicals” (or something more clever like that) instead of just “oil”.
You can read the whole article about Germany’s legislative stupidity here on Reuter’s website: http://www.reuters.com/article/ConsumerandRetail08/idUSL1589672020080115
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