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April 25, 2007
Parts is parts
Big Oil is getting into the biodiesel game. On the surface that’s good news. Last week I wrote about oil companies and how through their gas station franchises they are not allowing competing products like biodiesel to arrive on the pumps. Now Conoco-Phillips has entered into an agreement with Tyson Foods to produce the oil company's own brand of biodiesel out of leftover, well, parts from Tyson’s chicken, beef, and pork production.
While not technically biodiesel, the process does take organic materials and using a chemical process turns it into diesel fuel. What sets it apart is the use of existing traditional refineries.
If Conoco-Phillips is putting out a diesel product that burns cleaner, uses waste materials, and is not a foreign source of energy, then I’m all for it. It seems, however, that this idea was hatched to take advantage of federal tax incentives introduced for biodiesel refineries. Several biodiesel organizations and producers have cried foul. They allege that the Connoco-Philips successfully lobbied the IRS to expand the incentive loophole and hijack the biodiesel industry.
"If Congress lets this stand, our government will be handing over U.S. taxpayer money to some of the richest companies in the world…”
Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board.
I am shocked at how unshocked I am at the news that the IRS assisted a big oil company in making more money. Our descendents will look back on the first ten years of the millennia as the "No-Bid Decade."
Just to be fair, I can’t help but point out a certain amount of hypocrisy in Mr. Jobe’s comments. Of the soybeans used to produce biodiesel represented by Mr. Jobe’s organization, how many were grown on profitable large agribusiness farms that receive taxpayer-funded farm subsidies?
Corporate welfare is corporate welfare.
(At this moment I cannot comprehend the bizarro world of logic I find myself in -- even tangentially defending a big oil company.)
Big Oil exploited a loophole to make more money. It’s been clear for a while what their priorities are. If they are going to take any steps towards addressing global warming/energy independence it will be profit motivated. We currently are not using wealth as a measurement for who receives government farm subsidies. This just proves how twisted and broken the system is.
Finally, and in all seriousness, does biodiesel produced from animal byproducts and waste parts pose an ethical quandary to vegetarians and vegans?
Comments
Of course it's an ethical issue for vegan/veg heads! My first response was, "Why would I feel any better about putting dead animals - that had a tortured existence when alive - into my car than I do about putting them into my body?" I won't support it. Besides, it's just another example of the corporate excuse for greed, "Hey, we have to make our shareholders' wallets fat and happy."
Posted by: Tamlyn | May 1, 2007 10:11 AM