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Alcohol
It is illegal to distill spirits in the US without a license. But getting a license makes it very impractical economically unless you go into the business of selling. And even if you get into the business of selling distilled spirits, it's still impractical unless you're a very large company that can tolerate the numerous requirements, extensive applications, annual fees, production taxes, a bond, adequate equipment (subject to approval) and registration of all supplies, suppliers, and formulas. And we won't even get into the reporting requirements. The subtext, as with so many things, is simple: get big or get out. But there is much more at stake here than temperance or even alcoholic beverage market share. Alcohol has a rich history as a valuable source of fuel, and has been thought of as everything from "the fuel of the future" to a way of revitalizing the American farm. In the mid 1800s, small distilleries produced millions of gallons of alcohol for lighting, until an alcohol tax in 1862 under President Lincoln put an end to that, making kerosene (petroleum based) the primary fuel for lighting, and putting distilleries that produced alcohol out of business. Coincidentally, John D. Rockefeller bought his first oil refinery that same year, and Standard Oil would become the dominant player in the kerosene market shortly thereafter. According to Howard Zinn, “He bought his first oil refinery in 1862, and by 1870 set up Standard Oil Company of Ohio, made secret agreements with railroads to ship his oil with them if they gave him rebates—discounts—on their prices, and thus drove competitors out of business." Teddy Roosevelt lifted the alcohol tax in 1906, legalizing the manufacture of alcohol once again, presumably to create competition for Standard Oil. The effect was anything but that. Apparently, sharing even a small piece of the fuel pie with farmers and smaller distilleries that produced alcohol was unacceptable to Standard Oil. So they began undercutting the price of alcohol by selling gasoline below cost for a while. They weren't too keen on competition. Nor were they keen on independence and sustainability, the costs, short term and long, be damned. In 1911, the dissolution of Standard Oil into 34 smaller companies would have precious little effect on the problem it presumably sought to address. To the contrary, it would make Rockefeller the richest man in the world. No surprises. Share prices of the resultant companies in some cases doubled, and the two largest, Exxon and Mobil, would grow substantially in the coming years, aided no doubt by Prohibition, which big oil lobbied heavily for, just as they had for Temperance. It is estimated that during the Prohibition years, from 1920 to 1933, America lost about 200,000 farms. (Tickell) By the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the petroleum standard in the automotive industry was already firmly in place. This included the additive of lead, yet another substance easily dominated, having a market with intrinsically limited access. We can't have any pesky farmers or distilleries cutting in on the action, even though alcohol is an excellent anti-knock, octane boosting additive, sans the public health concerns. Once again, the costs, this time the public health, be damned. According to author, Bill Kovarik; By the mid-1930s, the alliance between General Motors, DuPont Corp. and Standard Oil to produce Ethyl leaded gasoline succeeded beyond all expectations: 90 percent of all gasoline contained lead. Public health crusaders who found this troubling still spoke out in political forums, but competitors were not allowed to criticize leaded gasoline in the commercial marketplace. In a restraining order forbidding such criticism, the Federal Trade Commission said Ethyl gasoline “is entirely safe to the health of [motorists] and to the public in general when used as a motor fuel, and is not a narcotic in its effect, a poisonous dope, or dangerous to the life or health of a customer, purchaser, user or the general public.” In 1942, Senate committees began looking into the extent to which the oil industry had controlled other industries, including the alcohol industry and the rubber industry. Attorney General Thurmond Arnold testified that anti-trust investigations had taken place into the oil industry’s influence in the alcohol industry in the 1913-1920 period, in the early 1920s, and between 1927 and 1936. “Renewed complaints in 1939 were brought to the anti-trust division but because of funds no action was taken,” Arnold said. Then the investigation of 1941 which exposed a “marriage” between Standard Oil Co. and the German chemical company I.G. Farben also brought new evidence concerning complex price and marketing agreements between du Pont Corp., a major investor in and producer of leaded gasoline, U.S. Industrial Alcohol Co. and their subsidiary, Cuba Distilling Co. The investigation was eventually dropped, like dozens of others in many different kinds of industries, due to the need to enlist industry support in the war effort. Leaded gas would finally be banned, 6o years later (1986) for ... public health concerns. By then, alcohol was already being used as a fuel additive, yet again. But only for the big players. The regulatory framework was firmly in place to protect the establishment from intrusion on fuel market share by farmers and smaller distilleries. No, distilling alcohol isn't outright illegal. But it might as well be. Too bad, because Bell called alcohol “a wonderfully clean-burning fuel … that can be produced from farm crops, agricultural wastes, and even garbage.” Ford considered alcohol the fuel of the future and the key to a rural renaissance. He built an automobile in 1880 that ran solely on alcohol. Elihu Thomson of General Electric Company reported that despite a smaller heat or B.T.U. value, "a gallon of alcohol will develop substantially the same power in an internal combustion engine as a gallon of gasoline. This is owing to the superior efficiency of operation..." These attitudes towards alcohol were common. Kovarik again: "Around 1920 and 1921, Kettering came to believe that alcohol fuel from renewable resources would be the answer to the compression problem and the possibility of an oil shortage. Along with his British counterpart, H.R. Ricardo, Kettering settled on alcohol as the key to unshackling the internal combustion engine from non-renewable fossil fuels,” said historian Stuart Leslie. “Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) never knocked, it could be produced by distiling waste vegetable material, and it was almost pollution-free. Ricardo compared alcohol fuel to living within a man’s means, implying that fossil fuels were a foolish squandering of capital.” Alcohol is far more than just a fuel additive. It's a fuel unto itself, and a renewable one. No, it might not appear to be as cheap as gasoline that we have to import. But that's only because real cost of gasoline (vast military occupations, CIA destabilization programs, etc ...) is not paid for at the pump, but rather shows up in our national debt. At least alcohol would be our own fuel, sustainable, and far less polluting. At least we wouldn't have to keep putting the cost of our fuel on the proverbial tab. Are there other technologies that might also provide sustainable, renewable fuel? You bet. But how is access looking for those? When they come, if they come, their legality will be commensurate with their intrinsic access, and how easily they can be dominated. In 1962, Donald Despain wrote "The One and Only Solution to the Farm Problem." Guess what that solution was? It's instructive to note that most farms in America used to have a still which was used to distill various farm waste (by products, wood, stover, garbage... ) into alcohol, which in turn, could be used to run everything from machinery, lamps, cars and trucks. Stills were a crucial link for farms and their complete, efficient operation. Today, that link has been destroyed by regulation, at the behest of big industry, which prefers not to have any competition. The petrochemical industry lends itself to domination. Access is inherently limited. On the other hand, just about anyone can attain access to the alcohol market. In many countries, distillation remains commonplace to this day. Stills are cheap and can be built in a day. Meanwhile, how is entry into the petrochemical market looking to the ordinary person? By the way, the petrochemical industry also lends itself very nicely to interventionist foreign policy and occupation. How convenient, for a few anyway. But it's not just about minimizing competition. It's also about maximizing buyers. It's a lot easier to sell fuel to people who aren't allowed to make their own.
Next: Conclusion ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
notes:
"Free Alcohol" - Hearing before the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, 59th Congress, 1st session. February-March, 1906 - books.google.com/books?id=E2Y-AAAAYAAJ - see p. 105 for the Elihu Thomson piece.
History of Alternative Energy and Fossil Fuels - http://alternativeenergy.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002475&print=true
Tickell - Biodiesel America ( books.google.com/books?isbn=0970722745 - see page 102 )
Kovarik, Bernton, Sklar - http://www.environmentalhistory.org/brilliant/about-2/
Zinn - "A People's History of the United States" (p.140) - http://www.wattpad.com/122727-howard-zinn-a-people's-history-of-the-u-s?p=140
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil
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