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Oops. Another Biofuel Boondoggle: Black Liquor

Puppycow

Penultimate Amazing
Puppycow
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Let me preface this by stating that I'm for green energy and preserving the natural environment. I just want to make sure that what is sold to us as "green" really is green and is going to be worth it in the long run.

This sort of thing makes me cringe

April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Paper companies may claim about $6.6 billion from a U.S. tax break meant to discourage use of fossil fuels, and they’ll burn more diesel to get it.

The tax credit is an incentive to mix an alternative energy source with carbon-based fuel. Papermakers already generate electricity by burning a wood byproduct from pulp-making called “black liquor.” To qualify for the windfall they are adding diesel fuel to the black liquor, following the letter of the law while violating its spirit, said Verle Sutton, editor of the Reel Time Report, a unit of Los Angeles-based Forestweb Inc., a provider of data on the paper industry.

“It’s an absolute government boondoggle,” Sutton said. “These companies were not using fossil fuels. They only started because they needed it for the tax credit to work. So there’s a negative to the environment, not a positive.”
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Oops. So taxpayers are out $6.6 billion and more fossil fuels have been burned as a result.

AAAAh! :mad:
 
Puppycow said:
Let me preface this by stating that I'm for green energy and preserving the natural environment. I just want to make sure that what is sold to us as "green" really is green and is going to be worth it in the long run.

This sort of thing makes me cringe



Oops. So taxpayers are out $6.6 billion and more fossil fuels have been burned as a result.

AAAAh! :mad:
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It was no different with commercial ethanol production subsidies.
 
Who the heck is still using the Sulphate process to make paper these days? I was under the impression almost all had gone to mechanical seperators, even for fine paper.

On the plus side it really won't be a substantial increase in diesel use and will apparently keep people at work. Hopefully the decrease in other areas will offset this increase.
 
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3bodyproblem said:
Who the heck is still using the Sulphate process to make paper these days? I was under the impression almost all had gone to mechanical seperators, even for fine paper.
[snip]
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Anyone who can bribe Congress to pay them to do so.
 
Puppycow said:
Let me preface this by stating that I'm for green energy and preserving the natural environment. I just want to make sure that what is sold to us as "green" really is green and is going to be worth it in the long run.

This sort of thing makes me cringe



Oops. So taxpayers are out $6.6 billion and more fossil fuels have been burned as a result.

AAAAh! :mad:
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Sounds like some smart people!
 
leftysergeant said:
Call your congress critters. The law needs to be changed to give them credit for burning straight black liquor.
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No, it needs to be changed to eliminate incentives to do things that they would do anyway.

They were already using black liquor without any government subsidy.

If paper mills are not profitable, then some need to be shut down because we don't want to produce more paper than we need.
 
balrog666 said:
Anyone who can bribe Congress to pay them to do so.
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Exactly:
‘In the Black’

Mason said he expected some papermakers to qualify for more from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service than their market values. Those companies are Boise Inc. of Boise, Idaho, with a market capitalization of $57 million as of yesterday’s close; Northbrook, Illinois-based KapStone Paper & Packaging Corp., worth $72 million; Chicago-based Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., worth about $23 million, and Verso, $35 million.

“This tax credit puts pulp-producing paper companies in the black,” said Dennis Ruggles, a director with Fitch Ratings Inc. in Chicago who follows the paper industry. “Many of them are losing money from making paper so the only money they’re making in some cases is from the tax credit.”
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Don't forget: when we make paper, we have to cut down trees to do that. So there's another way that this harms the environment.
 
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Papermakers already generate electricity by burning a wood byproduct from pulp-making called “black liquor.”
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Well that’s a relief; I thought they might actually be talking about black liquor. My preferred libation, for some time now, is Bacardi Select (use to be called Bacardi Black). That would have driven up my ‘entertainment’ expenses. Although I might sometimes run on black liquor, I was not looking to run my car on it.
 
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