Ethanol's dirty little secret
mvn
Member, Moderator Posts: 753 mod
Good, fast, cheap.... pick two.
2019 MTX20 Extreme
2019 MTX20 Extreme
Post edited by Dream_Inn on
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good article.
it didn't cover, however, other impacts, such as food costs.. drought forces farmers to feed cattle less, harvest more often, and shorten this years (and last years) harvest in order to meet the mandated demand for ethanol production.. the ethanol production cuts into the feed available.. the feed not being available causes farmers to slaughter cattle sooner than usual, and takes longer for younger cattle to reach slaughter size at the appropriate time.. which means to us: higher cost of food due to less production and stable demand..
to tie this thread in with the diesel debate-
there is a fella in the northeast who has figured out how to turn algae into oil, and fire compression engines (i.e., diesel) with it.. the crop of algae renews every thirty days on ponds formulated to grow it.. it gives almost a 3:1 ratio.. for every three gallons of algae, you can extract a gallon of oil... that is pretty dang slick, no? .. totally renewable in thirty days... diesel engines can run it readily, though not as efficiently as petroleum based oil...
it's a dang great start.. as technology surrounding compression fired engines improves and becomes more common on the road and water, and then this crap is being made meets somewhere in the middle- we'll lessen our dependency and take matters in our own hands..
Obama is not entirely to blame here. The corn state senators are in it up to their eyballs. They are the ones who steer this misguided policy. Here in Iowa recently, there has been a change at the pumps to encourage MORE ethanol consumption. Used to be, 10% ethanol was cheapest at the pump. Regular grade with no ethanol was 10 cents more per gal, and 91 octane premium with no ethanol, was 20 cents more per gal. They are now pushing up the percentage of etahnol to near 15%. It is still the cheapest per gal at the pump. Reg w/o ethanol, 20 cents more per gal, and premium, now 50 cents more per gal!!!Thank you Senator Grassley!
That's right on par with what we've been paying down in SW Fl "IF" you can find E0/rec fuel. last time I checked it was $4 gal for 90octane E0/rec fuel, and reg E10 was $3.40ish. $4.65 at the avg marina for valvetech E0 reg
Nobody who thinks it through is happy with any part of the ethanol boondoggle while BOTH parties AND the corporations' who run the refineries and farm it all are up to their necks in it. Avoiding it as much as possible is all we can do.
PC BYC, Holland, MI
the funniest thing about the entire fuel debate(s): legislators want to make gasoline more bio, and diesel less... the argument for bio in gas detracts from the argument for bio in diesel, but those clowns act like that fact doesn't exist.. it's all about money.. there is zero logic to it anymore.. they don't want me making my own fuel for my truck out of recycled and bio's such as algae squeeze- that's illegal.. but.. they want corn to grow the alcohol for gasoline.. go figure.
Dream 'Inn III -- 2008 400 Express