" How Do You Spell Subsidy ? This is an unreasonable burden on taxpayers at this time! "

" Using corn for ethanol takes food directly from the food supply. At the same time it raises local feed prices to dairymen. If the plant is built in Hanford it will also require 1 million gallons of water a day. None of that seems worth it, especially when there are many alternatives. "

" Ethanol is a bad fuel. It costs alot of money to produce, wastes valuable land, takes enormous subsidies and is bad fuel for engines. Ethanol ia a natural absorber of water. Water is a problem in fuel systems and internal combustion engines. It washes down oil in the cylinders causing early engine failure. Ethanol absorbes other contaminents with the moisture, including rust. Just look at the bottom of any fuel tank, you will find a nasty combinastion of rusty water mixed with other contaminents. The worst part about ethanol is: It was supposed to make fuel cheaper! Like that has happened, nor will it happen. "

" Another fiasco brought to you by your former City Council and it's matriarch. Now she will sit back and count the extra profit margin on ethanol vs gasoline. As we scramble to find corn feed for our cows and our tables to boot. Not to mention the million dollar a gallon water useage we don't have to put into the mix to create this subsidized fuel. A lose lose for the entire Central Valley before this hot potato finishes it's effect. By the way isn't the one developing this one the one who has gone broke in Goshen and a few other prime areas in the Central Valley? "

" Experts - where were u from 1995 to 2006 when Dairy Farmers in Kings County poketed $22.1 million in subsidies to force milk on us? Nash collected $210,432 and Kamper $485,628. did u know subsidy been goin to oil companies, now buying up ethanol projects? At least subsidy for ethanol stays in the US, instead of going to foreign countries that hate us. Educate urself - the price of energy (oil) and speculation increased food and corn prices. And ethanol only removes the starch from the corn. I bet Gale Banks has forgotten more than u'll ever know about engines. he say ethanol is best, cheapest racing fuel. Ethanol keep a engine clean - I have 150000 miles on my ole truck, always on ethanol and not a penny spent on any repair. I love milk, I love corn, and I love ethanol in beer and gasoline. There's plenty of it all to go around our country so stop whining and start learning. "

" To: MilkLover wrote on Mar 10, 2009 5:41 PM:
Your comments about the dairy businesses sounds like maybe you are a pig farmer with a bone to pick. Did they eat your pasture before the goats got a chance or what? You talk about us and then pick on the most wholesome product the area produces and produces in millions of gallons per year? Yes the farmers got subsidies for producing milk and I would much rather pay a subsidy for producing than for not producing and there were a lot of those paid in this valley from 1995 to 2006, so what's your beef? I think if anyone is in need of an education you need not look farther than your own mirror. The Dairy business has been king (no pun intended) in King's County for some time now. Not to mention Tulare County as well. They have supported alot of alfalfa and hay growers here and elsewhere not to mention trucking firms and dairy associations. They also met a pay roll every month as well, so I wouldn't talk down to them too much if I were you. "

" A little information on Agriculture to fill in the subsidy blanks:
California’s cabinet level agriculture secretary makes no bones about being disappointed in how USDA and Congress treats the No. 1 agricultural state in the nation.

He cites funding for the 2002 USDA Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) as another example of how he believes USDA is shortchanging California.

California’s environmental laws are the toughest in the nation. It has the largest urban population in the nation. Its agricultural production is double that of Texas and six times that of Colorado, yet California’s farmers and ranchers received less EQIP money for these perennial ag-urban issues than either Colorado or Texas.

California received a little more than $10 million in EQIP money last year, yet Texas received $21 million and Colorado 10.6 million.

California is the No. 1 agricultural state in the nation, yet it ranks 12th in subsidies paid to farmers. California farmers received almost $600 million in subsidies in 2001. By comparison, Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota and Illinois received more than $1 billion annually in farmer subsidies. Arkansas, Missouri, Georgian, Colorado, South Dakota "