Ethanol. Not a bad thing. Let me get that straight. We have lots of fuels in this country. Ethanol is just another one. My problem with it is it's continual insistence through taxpayer dollars down the throats of Americans. I live in an area with one of the many 'boutique' gasolines created in this country for 'pollution' reasons. My fuel contains, as the pumps say, "Up to 10% ethanol." Why exactly is this?
Ethanol is in our gas because the air's 'polluted' here, so let's put a tiny bit of 'cleaner burning' (not really) fuel into our normal gasoline. That should help! I don't pretend to be an expert (okay, maybe I pretend, but I'm no expert), and I won't bore you with statistics and facts; you can look those up yourself. But this addition reduces the efficiency of my fuel, making already rather high priced gasoline, even more expensive!
What is the solution?
Wisconsin's 1st congressional district is served by Paul Ryan (VP on the McCain ticket by the way). A quite remarkable man who works quite hard has laid out the exact problems as to why our gas costs what it does today. An excellent read: Moving Toward a More Coherent Energy Policy
Ryan's point four (4) is what I'm talking about. Corn ethanol is a terribly inefficient use of corn, yet government mandates and incredible increase in corn ethanol production have basically caused the price of everything to increase. Sounds a bit far-fetched, I know, but it's basically true. Just about every processed food (even meat & dairy) contains - in some fashion - corn. When corn costs more, milk costs more, beef costs more, cereal costs more, and on and on.
Is corn in abundance in the United States? Yes, with a but. But, not enough for the ethanol mandate and to feed everyone, not to mention the countries that buy food from us and even those that we give it too! Corn is food, not fuel. If you want to make ethanol, use cellulosic ethanol, easier to make, better return on energy in/energy out, and we have plenty of spare grass and cellulose product that, as far as I know, we don't eat!
Am I for no ethanol at all? No, I'm not. Ethanol is a relatively good fuel. The problem is the mixing. E85, E10, E25, there are all sorts of gasoline/ethanol combinations. This needs to stop! One fuel or the other please! Design an engine that can run solely on ethanol and nothing else. Ignoring the distribution issues and availability of 100% ethanol, why not create such a thing. It's done in racing; there are vehicles that run on pure ethanol. When the vehicle is designed from the beginning to burn ethanol, it can be harnessed for all the available power without regard to gasoline. Fuel cells, hydrogen, electric cars; none of them will be feasible and inexpensive enough to mass produce; an ethanol vehicle might. If a gallon of (cellulosic) ethanol costs less than gasoline, people will start to switch. The economy produces results, not mandates. The next time government solves a problem with a mandate instead of creating them, you let me know.
Give me my 100% gasoline again! My car will get better mileage and run cleaner (because of the efficiency increase). And I know it will last longer. Americans will be burning gasoline in their vehicles well into the 22nd century, but it will still cost $50+ to fill up, even though you'll get 100+mpg.
Short answer: fuck it, "I want my gas-o-liiiiine" :-\
Next Point: Stupid Americans (could be anything, huh)
