Watching the soybean oil and yellow grease prices today, I am struck by the fact that we’re supposed to be in the “Memorial Day Squeeze” right now with gas prices peaking and all energy costs surging. Instead, while it’s true that gas and diesel prices are up about 20 cents since the beginning of the year, it’s nowhere near as much as predicted.
Why? Because we still have a surplus of crude here in the US, with tankers of it parked out in the Gulf of Mexico. So why is soybean oil at .41/lb ($3.11 per gal) and Yellow Grease at .28/lb ($2.13 per gal)? Greed.
I don’t hear the media chiming away at the party line about how biodiesel and ethanol are driving up fuel prices this year. Again, why? Because most of the biodiesel and ethanol plants are shut down in 2009 because feedstock prices are too high, and fuel prices are too low. So apparently the “Food vs. Fuel” argument has lost a good bit of its steam. It’s not true this year… It wasn’t true last year. It was just circumstances that permitted the Ag industry to jack up prices and make extra profits. Good for you guys.
Now as the government claims to be pushing renewable fuels and trying to save the environment and become less dependent upon foreign fuel imports, we have no resources to do it that are priced reasonably.
The problem appears to be obvious. So why is nothing being done?
Somebody help, please…