HAVE A GREAT WEDNESDAY READERS!

What an embarassing loss by our LSU Tigers in Monday's BCS National Championship game in New Orleans. Alabama Coach Nick Saban had his team ready to play and LSU's Coach Les Miles DID NOT! I believe most of us had hoped they would come out at the start of the 3rd quarter with some adjustments to get back in the game.......but Miles stayed with the same plan. Then, he totally enraged the fans by not pulling Jefferson and at least give Jarret Lee a try. He couldn't have done any worse?

At least, the team will have 3 VERY GOOD quarterbacks starting next year, with both Jefferson and Lee graduating this year. Maybe next year?

Back to ethanol issues........found this article commending the US Congress for NOT extending the ethanol subsidies. As I explained in a previous post, the $0.45 refinery tax credit subsidy to refineries to blend ethanol gas and the $0.54/gallon ethanol import tariff expired on January 1st this year. I'm hoping the loss of this credit will make the economics such that refineries, especially the majors, will return to blending at least some ethanol FREE gas. We may not know this however until mid year or so.

JAMES B. TREECE

Kudos to Congress for letting ethanol subsidy expire

December 29, 2011 - 11:14 am ET

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James B. Treece is industry editor at Automotive News.

The current do-nothing, argue-over-everything Congress managed to do something right before adjourning last Friday, by -- surprise, surprise -- doing nothing.

Congress failed to extend a 30-year tax subsidy for corn-based ethanol that cost taxpayers $6 billion annually and ended a tariff on imported Brazilian ethanol.

Ending that egregious subsidy was the right thing to do on so many fronts that it’s hard to enumerate them all. Here are a few reasons to praise Congress’ action/inaction:

• It saves $6 billion a year. That’s a pittance compared with the savings from ending the war in Iraq, which had the added benefit of saving American lives. But even in Washington, at least outside the Pentagon, $6 billion is real money.

• Supporters of corn-based ethanol claimed it was an interim step on the way to cellulosic ethanol, which would use leftover wood chips, corn stalks (rather than kernels) and other waste products to create ethanol. But after 30 years, that’s a lame argument.

• It’s not like the subsidy is a critical price support that is keeping family farmers from going bankrupt and losing their land. Growing demand from China has boosted crop prices. The subsidy was icing on the cake, pushing corn prices just that much higher.

You can reach James B. Treece at jtreece@crain.com.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20111229/BLOG06/111229922#ixzz1hznnTRwh

"Pete" Landry.............comments welcome..............at............way2gopete@yahoo.com