Ethanol is made from corn grain and corn grain comes from harvests of corn – millions of acres of it.
This year’s harvest is miserable. Due to the pervasive drought out west, cornfields throughout the mid-west have shriveled and burned and in some cases there has been a negligible harvest.
In such an environment, the price for corn has soared and will continue soaring.
The higher price for corn causes the production cost for Ethanol to be that much higher.
Add to this the dangers of transporting Ethanol which is much more powerful an accelerant than gasoline and you get a possible perfect storm – cities and towns who don’t want Ethanol transported by rail through their communities and fire fighting experts who say Ethanol is a far more dangerous fuel than just about any other because its explosive powers are increased dramatically when water is poured onto it when it is burning.
It is easy to be against the transport through or the storage of Ethanol in East Boston.
It is the wrong accelerant, moved over tracks in rail tanker cars in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We oppose this as a clear and present danger to the well being of East Boston.
The potential for catastrophe here should a series of tankers carrying Ethanol explode is great. The only antidote to this possibility is good old-fashioned protest.
The sooner Global Fuel understands that we do not stand for Ethanol passing through our community by the millions of gallons the sooner Global Fuel will give up and go elsewhere.
In fact, Global should have removed their oil tanks decades ago.
Senator Anthony Petruccelli and Senator Sal DiDomenico along with Representatives Kathi-Ann Reinstein and Carlo Basile have all joined the anti-Ethanol forces.
They have done so as a matter of public safety.
We urge everyone who believes Ethanol is not an option for this area should let their elected representative know how you feel about it.
In the meantime, we continue to oppose shipments of Ethanol by train through Boston, Everett, Chelsea, East Boston and Revere.
Let the Global Fuel barons go back to their mansions in the tony suburbs where they live. Let them try to imagine Ethanol by the millions of gallons passing through their towns and their homes and then let them imagine how they would feel.
Not very good, we imagine.
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