State energy officials say the chasm widened in May, as many U.S. oil companies began to blend their gas with ethanol, a corn-based additive. Gas stations in New Hampshire’s southern tier are selling those blends, which have been especially expensive as ethanol producers struggle to meet the sudden demand. Stations in the rest of the state are not.

OH! So petrolium suppliers are thinning the gas with white lightning, apparently a more lucritive product for good old American farmers than corn syrup sweetner, and charging more for it. Do you get more MPG from the blended stuff? NO? WHAT? LESS?

On top of that,

The gap is enticing some drivers to travel a little bit farther for their gasoline. In Sanbornville, an assistant manager at the Blue Canoe said customers from Strafford County have been coming up in droves. Last week, she said, gas sales were up 156 percent over the same time a year ago.

Um…….

In the meantime, there’s a big push for “bio-diesel”. Various degrees of vegtable oil used to thin fuel and home heating oil. Does it work better? what? WORSE? You bet it’s more expensive per gallon!

I seem to remember a time when gasoline containing lead (an additive to compensate for
poor manufacturing tolerances, and substandard materials in the valves and valve seats in American cars) was ousted by mandate in an effort to clean up the air. The lead that was added then had to be removed, and it cost more. It was also less productive in terms of mileage. Strangely, after lead was no longer added in the first place, the price stayed the same, and was priced to the tenth of a cent per gallon. As a rule, NINE tenths.

Which brings me to Maple Syrup.

New Hampshire would be unable to guard the purity of its maple syrup under federal legislation that has passed the House and is now in the Senate, the state’s top agriculture official and a consumer organization warned yesterday. (snip) The Granite State has laws on the books governing several food products, including honey, dairy, cider vinegar and maple syrup. New Hampshire law requires that anything labeled “New Hampshire maple syrup” be derived entirely from maple-tree sap and have nothing added to it.“If our law gets pre-empted, you could put corn syrup in it for all I know,” Taylor said. “It’s just outrageous.”

“Outside interests” could, and would, in a heartbeat.

But a supporter of the Uniformity legislation said it would not affect New Hampshire maple syrup.

“That is completely irrelevant to the bill,” said Stuart Pape, a lawyer representing a coalition of agriculture and food producers. The 12-year-old Nutrition Labeling and Education Act already sets standards of identity for all sorts of packaged food, such as maple syrup.

Bah huulsht, Ooo, pardon me!(sniffle)

The Uniformity legislation is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. It passed the House in March with the support of New Hampshire Congressmen Jeb Bradley and Charlie Bass.The legislation is an attempt to put the same labels on food sold across the country, Pape said.

It would overturn Proposition 65, a California law that requires producers to place warning labels on food that California officials believe could cause cancer or birth defects.

“That undermines consumer confidence in the food supply,” Pape said. “If food ought to have a warning, it ought to have a warning in New Hampshire as well as California.”

Hmmm….. How about this instead. “If food ought to have a warning, it should be sold as industrial solvent, or a petrolium additive, not as a food for man or beast.”

Furthermore, I kind of like the system in New Hampshire, where if it’s labled for sale as NH Maple Syrup-that’s what it is. It’s not Sysco Industrial Foods “MAPLE (flavord corn) SYRUP”.

I’m all for the good old American farmer. The folks that plow with a GPS and plant geneticly mutated seed, then get government incentive to NOT grow crops don’t get a bonus round when it comes to overpriced agricultural waste. Archer Danials and Monsanto folks rarely get dirt under their fingernails.

Just take your white lightning, mix it with some ground up orange peels left over from the Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice consortium (same stuff in “pleasant orange scented industrial degreaser), put it in a “cool” looking bottle with a dorky name in French, and sell it to rubes as “premium vodka” for $20.00/750ml with the NH State Liquer Commission blessing.