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Welcome to the Commentary Magazine Daily Podcast today is Tuesday April 12th 2022.

I'm John Pudhort, see editor of Pound and Turing Magazine with me as always executive editor eight greenwald hi eight.

Hi John, senior writer Christine Rosenhyk, Christine.

Hi John. And associate editor Noah Rothman. So Noah, you have told me something that I did not know for 40 more than 40 years.

I have been a a serious ideological opponent of the of the ethanol subsidies and the ethanol games played by the

federal government ethanol being this corn based gas additive. Additives to gas that was disproportionately something of benefit to the

archer Daniels Midland corporation. And it was the it was the brilliant lobbying efforts of Dwayne and Reyes the head of the of archer Daniels Midland that kept ethanol in the center of even in the Reagan administration.

This kind of a completely deranged government prop up for for for agribusiness.

Here we are 40 years later and you tell me as we hear about the Biden administrations or White House's decision to lower the amount of ethanol necessary.

I'm not quite I'm I'm alright so they're going to do whatever they're going to do lower gas prices using ethanol. And that this is going to be ruin this for you and a lot of other people in ways that I did not know. Can you please explain sure.

So yeah, the Biden administration announces today yet another stunt to try to stop what's inevitably coming their way in November to allow producers and gas gasoline manufacturers to sell ethanol gas.

15% ethanol gas in the summer months usually you're only allowed to sell it in the winter months. And they do that because in the winter months it's colder.

And the particulate freezes and sinks so ethanol has the chance of you creating smog. And if you live in an urban environment that's a menace.

But it's not you know the end of the world. It's it's it might hurt you if you have a particular sensitivity to air quality. But otherwise it's not a big deal.

It's a lot different if you live in the countryside. You have more than an acre of land that you have to maintain. I do.

And I have to buy a tractor today. Because I have to mow my lawn on top of that I have gas powered weed whackers, gas powered chainsaws, gas powered with the blowers, you know all that stuff.

And ethanol kills small engines. Ethanol is really bad for small engines. It can cause filter plugging. It could seize the engine up. It could create a no-star condition.

So you think your engine is dead. And maybe it is dead. You got to go replace the thing by a whole new piece of equipment. These are not small expenses.

And this is the sort of thing that you would do if you had absolutely no interest in or knowledge of what it's like to live on more than an acre of land.

If you only live in the city, then you're like well, small is not great, but it's not going to ruin my life.

If you live in a in a in a suburb or God forbid someplace that's rural, or you need to use actual farm equipment.

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