Ethanol in our fuel?

[Barry Rietz]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj

 

[localboy]

He shoots..he scores!!!! :wink:

 

[Will-C]

wow say it ain't true! You mean internet Al was pandering for votes and all we got was this stinking ethanol? The next thing ya know someone is gonna say santa ain't real.
D.D.

 

[texasair]

The problem is that the local economies quickly get adjusted to this as the norm and when the government ethanol prop up fades, the economies in the corn states will tank.


It will be a kind of trickle up bust, not just the farmers, John Deere will be selling less tractors, and the local Ford dealers will sell fewer Pickups.

But I won't have as many problems with gummed carbs in my chainsaw,
lawnmower, boat, weedeater, generator, motorcycle, garden tiller, etc.

So I guess the small engine mechanics will suffer too.

 

[Will-C]

Why not just slowly phase out the bad idea of ethanol let people adjust for what needs to happen. Food prices will drop, the gumint can develop new hand outs for industries that fail to be able withstand the rigors of natural selection. Maybe limit some of the imports coming from China, develop and manufacture here other means of creating energy that actually are cost effective and better for the environment. Propping up a bad idea that benefits a few and punishes the many really ought to stop. Only my opinion here not looking for a donnybrook. There has to be a better way.
D.D.

 

[Anonymous]

Hopefully, I'm not being too naive in welcoming Gore's confession, but I'm glad he opened up about ethanol. Like McNamara's admission about Vietnam, it won't change the past, but perhaps help our nation to not make the same mistake twice... ...or, four times in a row... :roll:

 

[Matt Gurnsey]

Does this mean E15 is a bad idea- as many have said all along? :roll:

 

[localboy]

..perhaps help our nation to not make the same mistake twice... ...or, four times in a row... :roll:

It's not our nation that makes the same mistakes...it's the politicians we elect. But then again, we do seem to send the same politicians back, so I guess we do make the same mistakes over and over... :roll:

 

[thataway]

The ethanol lobby is still very active, unfortunately. Hopefully the E15 will not catch on, Not so sure that E 10 will go away, The only land based pure gas station in Pensacola, went to E 10 last month.

I am told that the ethanol is added at the tanker, but non ethanol gas is barged in to the tank farms. I do not know if this is true or not. But if so, then not adding the ethanol (or adding more) would be easy....

Personally I am against the ethanol in fuel. All of our marine stations use non ethanol fuel, and I consider it worth the increased cost...

 

[Will-C]

I'm hoping that gas stations and gas companies will realize people are willing to pay a little more for non ethanol polluted fuel. In our area they use additives in the winter to better oxygenate gas. So I think in the five counties surrounding Philadelphia the ethanol is used for this purpose to reduce smog is the spin. We have emission testing in those same counties where out lying areas don't. The closest non ethanol fuel for me is in Allentown Pa for this reason. I can't find a station in New Jersey that sells gas without ethanol.. I think getting rid of ethanol will be harder than selling a condo in Chernobyl. I do want to thank Al for finally coming clean. :crook
D.D.

 

[Matt Gurnsey]

As I understand it, Federal Law requires that the gas companies use a certain number of gallons of Ethonal a year, and that number goes up each year, so while they might like to offer non ethonal fuel (and make more money on it) they are under the heel of the federal regs.

To compound the issue, while the amount of required Ethonal goes up each year, total fuel use is down from a few years ago, so E15 may be forced upon us for the oil companies to meet the mandated amount of ethonal usage.

 

[rogerbum]

As I understand it, Federal Law requires that the gas companies use a certain number of gallons of Ethonal a year, and that number goes up each year, so while they might like to offer non ethonal fuel (and make more money on it) they are under the heel of the federal regs.

To compound the issue, while the amount of required Ethonal goes up each year, total fuel use is down from a few years ago, so E15 may be forced upon us for the oil companies to meet the mandated amount of ethonal usage.

EPACT2005 requires that the use of renewable motor fuels be increased from the 2004 level of just over 4 billion gallons to a minimum of 7.5 billion gallons in 2012, after which the requirement grows at a rate equal to the growth of the gasoline pool [19]. The law does not require that every gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel be blended with renewable fuels. Refiners are free to use renewable fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, in geographic regions and fuel formulations that make the most sense, as long as they meet the overall standard. Conventional gasoline and diesel can be blended with renewables without any change to the petroleum components, although fuels used in areas with air quality problems are likely to require adjustment to the base gasoline or diesel fuel if they are to be blended with renewables.

The above text is quoted from this link. It's also worth noting that the use of ethanol in fuel was also driven by a variety of other issues (oxygenation of the fuel, concerns about the use of MTBE, etc). See the link for some more information in this regard.