More ethanol in gasoline ?? He's kidding right ??

**PocketProtector** · March 9th, 2009, 11:51 AM

http://cbs3.com/topstories/tom.vilsa....2.953778.html

**autotech6506** · March 9th, 2009, 12:27 PM

He clearly knows nothing about the subject. Ethanol kills fuel economy and unless the vehicle is a flex fuel (95% of cars aren't) your not supposed to run anymore than 10% ethanol or you start having drivability issues. So basically he wants all the cars in the US to get worse fuel economy and force the automakers to re-engineer their programming. Yay politicians who don't know squat.

**PocketProtector** · March 9th, 2009, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by autotech6506

He clearly knows nothing about the subject. Ethanol kills fuel economy and unless the vehicle is a flex fuel (95% of cars aren't) your not supposed to run anymore than 10% ethanol or you start having drivability issues. So basically he wants all the cars in the US to get worse fuel economy and force the automakers to re-engineer their programming. Yay politicians who don't know squat.

And increase the price of corn.

**autotech6506** · March 9th, 2009, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by PocketProtector

And increase the price of corn.

exactly. raise the cost of food. That is just what we need right now.

**ajax** · March 9th, 2009, 01:33 PM

Not only that, but ethanol derived from corn has one of the WORST returns on energy with cane sugar being one of the best. In general, for every 1 unit of energy put into making corn ethanol (harvesting, distilling, etc), you get about 1.3 back. For comparison purposes, ethanol derived from cane sugar (Brazil) has more like a 1:8 return.

Not economically sound, drives up food cost... no thank you.

If we really want to go the ethanol route, we should instead be >investing< in cellulose derived ethanol. There is a lot of potential for extracting ethanol with a much better energy return from agricultural waste that gets tossed anyway. Much better IMO.

**Berks_Iraq_Vet** · March 9th, 2009, 01:45 PM

Isn't making ethanol from corn inefficient energy wise? Where are the Global Warming/ Climate Change whackers on this one? Plus, nothing like using up a staple of the food supply.

**adymond** · March 9th, 2009, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by Berks_Iraq_Vet

Isn't making ethanol from corn inefficient energy wise? Where are the Global Warming/ Climate Change whackers on this one? Plus, nothing like using up a staple of the food supply.

Also look at the thousands of gallons of potable water that is used in the process and suddenly you are fucking more people than if you had burned barrels of oil (that is assuming we are causing the fake crisis of global warming).

**PocketProtector** · March 9th, 2009, 01:59 PM

Yes Yes Yes and Yes. But so what it makes no sense, O gonna do it anyway

**Yellowfin** · March 9th, 2009, 04:08 PM

Corn is far from the only material for making ethanol. The reason it's even being used at all is that it's one of the most heavily SUBSIDIZED. There's a tremendous amount of political power in the corn lobby and the sugar lobby, both of which are heavily slanted against the broader interests of everyone else. The inputs are heavily taxed so the government wins big in that, then the subsidies are the perfect vote farming and form a political block--everyone who participates wins.