My first attempt at adding a pic to an article here. Sorry if it comes out wrong.
New federal law requiring 10% ethanol in ALL gasoline went into effect 01/01/08. Okay, so what does that mean for you and me?
Well, depending on your vehicle, you will now get somewhere between 3.5% and 8% fewer miles per gallon of fuel. And the ethanol affects emissions too. All else being equal, CO should drop, HC should drop (both are GOOD things), but NOx will go UP dramatically. So what? Well, it just so happens that NOx (oxides of nitrogen) are primary components of smog and acid rain. I don't know about YOU, but I feel greener already!! Oh, and one thing the emissions testing equipment does NOT check for is formaldehyde.....which will ALSO go up due to the increased ethanol content. And let's not forget about the benzene....
I'm a big fan of alternative fuels. Really I am. All I'm saying is that when we change what we put INTO an engine, we also change what comes OUT. Automakers are cranking out woefully inefficient machines at ridiculous prices and legislators keep passing laws that don't really DO anything to improve matters.
Example: Catalytic converters were a band-aid solution to a much deeper problem. Anyone here know what one actually DOES? Here's the simple version: it burns fuel that the engine FAILED to burn. Now, if the fuel doesn't BURN, then that fuel doesn't do anything to move us down the road.....so it's just wasted. Did the automakers try and make more efficient engines? Not really. They came up with the catalytic converter that choked our engines, killed what power we HAD, and dropped our fuel economy even MORE....and our legislators said, "HEY, that's a GREAT idea! EVERY vehicle should have one or 2 of those on them! We'll make it a LAW!"
Did you know that those things actually "wear out"? They do.
Did you know that certain fuel additives can "poison" them and make them stop working? They can.
Any idea how much energy (e.g. OIL) goes into making one? Rest assured that the number is astronomical.
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Comments: 15
People were "afraid" and "condemned" nuclear reactors, so we quit building them, falling farther and farther behind in energy development. If Japan can run 90% nuclear why are we only at 20% and falling? Because the nay-sayers win the day!
Now, let me say that I think ethanol has tremendous possibilities. However, we're going about it all wrong. Turning our FOOD SUPPLY into FUEL for our cars? REALLY? That's not smart and THAT's not hard to see. Corn ain't the answer.
It's a start but it's not sustainable.....but we're learning.
And let's not forget about bio-diesel. We can make some truly excellent diesel fuels from things we DON'T depend on for food: sawdust, fallen trees too rotten for lumber use, construction scrap, and the list goes on and on.
Ever seen some of the diesel cars they have in Europe? Check out the Ford Fiesta they have over there. I think it gets something like 75-80mpg.....and it's NOT a hybrid as I recall. Pretty snappy performance too. So why can't we get one HERE in the U.S.? Do we want to reduce our oil consumption without reinventing the wheel or NOT?
Nuclear? Sure. You can build a nuclear plant in my yard if it'll help.
Wind? Sure. I'm working on a new design of wind turbine right now that could be used in urban areas and places with limited space.
Solar? Absolutely and in ways we have not yet imagined.
Collectively, we KNOW what needs to be done AND HOW TO DO IT. So what's stopping us? Oh yeah.....the opposite of PROgress is CONgress.
WE can do it....THEY just don't get it.
One thing I failed to mention above: coal-to-oil technology. We can turn COAL into OIL and the United States just happens to be the "Saudi Arabia" of coal. Now, the LAST time we flexed our coal-to-oil muscles oil was going for about $39/barrel. Sounds GREAT nowadays but for the fact that it costs us about $60/barrel to produce coal-to-oil...um....oil. Anyway, we made it known that WE COULD DO IT and you'll never guess what happened. The price of middle-east oil came DOWN.....A LOT. Now, even if it cost us EIGHTY dollars per barrel to make the stuff from coal, we'd still be WAAAY ahead of the oil game to start doing that. Might even be able to take some of that money and use it to fund alternative fuel research & development. But the boys up in D.C. will no doubt find a way to screw that up too.