Daily Archives: 8 June 2026

Irrelevant

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In the ongoing struggle between Progressive-Democrat-run States and the Federal government, the Attorneys General of New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont have filed suit in the DC District Court in an attempt to undo an administration deal with TotalEnergies that has the latter ceasing its US-centered offshore wind projects and instead starting work on developing US oil and natural gas projects.

The Progressive-Democrat AGs’ argument centered on this:

We are fighting back to stop this illegal agreement that threatens to erase over a thousand union jobs and cheat millions of New Yorkers out of clean, affordable energy[.]

The “illegal agreement” bit is nakedly conclusory and has no merit in any guise. Stipulate the other factors are accurately presented. They are, though, purely business decisions made within a political and economic framework that is solely within the purview of the political branches—i.e., those two which are elected by We the People—and regarding which, the courts have nothing legitimate to say.

The AGs’ argument is wholly irrelevant and without merit in court. It is worthy of debate in the Congress and the White House only.

The role of judges. and of Justices who are a subset of that group and sit at the group’s top, under our form of government is to check the political branches from excess. Their means of doing so are at once powerful and limited. Judges must apply our Constitution as it is written, and must assess the constitutionality of any statute before them in a particular case. If the judges determine the statute to be constitutional, they must apply it as it is written. If they find the statute unconstitutional, they must strike it.

In particular, judges may not alter or disregard any part of our Constitution in favor of their own view of what it ought to be in order to achieve their own view of societal needs or of justice. Nor are they permitted to alter in any way the statute before them to suit those personal views of societal needs or of justice; they must strike it or apply it.

The deal between the administration and TotalEnergies is entirely legitimate from a legal standpoint, and it should be upheld in the district court, the DC Circuit, and at the Supreme Court.

The Cost of Ethanol-laced Gasoline

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A number of corn State Senators, Chuck Grassley (R, IA), Joni Ernst (R, IA), Deb Fischer (R, NE), Pete Ricketts (R, NE) and Roger Marshall (R, KS), have written about the financial benefits of ethanol in our gasoline.

Expanding E15 availability lowers gas prices by 20 to 40 cents per gallon on average.

Compared to what, though? See below.

And

E15 is a net positive. We know E15 will lower prices at the pump….

Again, compared to what?

I won’t go into the production costs of cars whose fuel-related seals must be designed to handle the corrosive nature of ethanol, nor will I address the maintenance costs of cars burning ethanol-laced fuels, even with those corrosion-resistant (but only resistant) seals, nor why the percentage of ethanol in gasoline tops out at 15% before ethanol’s corrosive nature overwhelms even these toughened up seals.

I won’t mention, either, the increase in the cost of food, including meat, from the diversion of corn away from the grocery store or the production of animal feed toward the production of ethanol. I’m only going to mention the immediate fiscal costs to the consumer of ethanol-laced gasoline, taking corn-based ethanol, corn being the primary source today for ethanol production, as my illustration.

It costs $1.74 in 2001 currencyto produce a gallon of ethanol from corn, and it costs 95 cents to produce a gallon of gasoline.

A gallon of E15 gasoline consists of 85% gasoline, and 15% ethanol. According to my 3rd grade arithmetic, the costs embodied in that gallon are 85% of $0.95 plus 15% of $1.74, or a skosh under $0.81 plus a skosh over $0.26. That’s $1.07 per gallon of the hybrid fuel. Using my 3rd grade arithmetic again, that’s $0.12 per gallon more than for unadulterated, and much easier on the car, gasoline.

That’s not cheaper fuel for our cars; it’s much more expensive. Those Senators bragged that

Expanding E15 availability lowers gas prices by 20 to 40 cents per gallon on average. That could mean around $400 per year in savings for a US household—precious dollars that could be spent on other needs.

The irony in that isn’t lost on me, even if it seems lost on those Senators. Instead of those 30 cents per gallon (to take the middle of their range) in ethanol-laced gasoline, not having to spend that baseline of 12 cents extra per gallon at all, all year long, would save roughly $160 per US household—precious dollars that could be spent on other needs, like food, including meat, made cheaper by no longer diverting corn to making alcohol. (OK, a little mention.)