5 Ethanol Myths Debunked

[WhiteyMacD]

It ain't rocket science. Ethanol has been around for a long time, I remember trying gasohol in my 1st car back around 1980'ish when it first came out. It's been hiding in the shadows all this time until the government started subsidizing it recently. Hmm...Why is that? If it's the saving grace the government says it is:

1) Why did the free market pretty much reject it cold for all those years?

and

2) Why does everyone hate it?

For the record, I think pure ethanol in an engine setup for it is just okay. But it just plain sucks to dilute gasoline with. CNG and propane are far better alternatives. Hell, if we could get rid of some of the EPA mandated emission controls DIESEL is a better alternative. If you don't believe that look at Europe.

No lie. A diesel delivery truck that gets 40+ mpg!!!!??? And the only thing stopping Ford from selling them stateside is a stupid law to protect from a problem that is cause MOSTLY by water vapor. And on that note, doesnt diesel exhaust fall rather than rise?

 

[BroDog01]

so you took it several places and nobody could pull the codes and tell you the cause for a check engine light? Sounds like you need better mechanics or places to look at the car. They make a scanner that reads the computer and pulls the DTC (diagnostic trouble codes) to tell you the issue.

I don't I said anywhere in my post that I took it anywhere.
Also, calm down and don't be so defensive. I'm just telling you; she used ethanol added gas and the light was on, switched to no ethanol gas and it went off.

 

[inactive]

Diesel, or even biodiesel.


Hello, give me a biodiesel/electric hybrid. Let me run the mofo on the battery and waste vegetable oil. 100+ mpg.

 

[soonersfan]

I am in the restaraunt business. We watch food commodities and futures closely. The government subsidies of ethanol have made corn a much more lucrative crop. As a result, soy farmers, wheat farmers, etc. changed their crops to corn. Thus, soy goes up, wheat goes up and corn goes up. Feed becomes more expensive so beef goes up, dairy goes up, etc. It's as simple as supply and demand and whatever you're saving at the pump you're giving back with interest at the grocery counter. I ought to know, since I buy close to a million in groceries every year.

Now, if you want to argue that you prefer ethanol because you like filling up more often or because you enjoy taking your small engines or boats in for repair, then you might have an argument. However, there was nothing substantial in this article for the support of ethanol.

 

[HiredHand]

Ethanol sucks. Go CNG or go home.

/thread

Ethanol is for drinking. Biodiesel would be my choice of biofuels.

 

[jcizzle]

Notice how #5 says you get 25% less mpg with ethanol but then again it costs 17% less. They say it like that's a good thing. Now if it got only 17% worse gas mileage but cost 25% less then we'd be talking. The savings don't match the lost mpg. You end up paying less per gallon but more per mile driven.

 

[HMFIC]

Notice how #5 says you get 25% less mpg with ethanol but then again it costs 17% less. They say it like that's a good thing. Now if it got only 17% worse gas mileage but cost 25% less then we'd be talking. The savings don't match the lost mpg. You end up paying less per gallon but more per mile driven.

This right here is the number one reason that ethanol has not earned a place in a capitalist economy. I've done the math myself on actual results in two different vehicles and even though the difference may seem negligable when it's easier to just drop into QT or the nearest local pump, it is real.

In my perfect world though, we'd be using electric cars for the vast majority of our tooling around town solo. The electricity can be generated in so many ways that we're not then limited in the method and we can continue to seek more efficient and sensible ways to do so.

 

[Biggsly]

#2 is definitely BS. Ethanol production has driven up the prices of every food commodity. He didn't "debunk" #5 and the desparity would be even greater without government subsidies.

This is what I don't get. Why do we bash "Big Oil" for getting breaks, but not others? Do or don't.

 

[poopgiggle]

Argonne is an arm of the Department of Energy and closely affiliated with Chicago/Illinois politics.

Do you have a source for a National Lab being involved in state/local politics? That doesn't sound right.

 

[VIKING]

I am in the restaraunt business. We watch food commodities and futures closely. The government subsidies of ethanol have made corn a much more lucrative crop. As a result, soy farmers, wheat farmers, etc. changed their crops to corn. Thus, soy goes up, wheat goes up and corn goes up. Feed becomes more expensive so beef goes up, dairy goes up, etc. It's as simple as supply and demand and whatever you're saving at the pump you're giving back with interest at the grocery counter. I ought to know, since I buy close to a million in groceries every year.

Now, if you want to argue that you prefer ethanol because you like filling up more often or because you enjoy taking your small engines or boats in for repair, then you might have an argument. However, there was nothing substantial in this article for the support of ethanol.

Thank you for explaining it so clear that even a feeble mind like me can understand it. I did notice that the feeble description in the earlier post has been edited..Doesn't matter...I'm still feeble and I still don't like the stinking stuff..I am just barely smart enough to know that the grain to feed out 2 calves this year is costing my family and I about 200 dollars more than last year. Not hard for even a feeble mind like me to figure out what's causing it.....Thanks again for your post..