MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
From the desk of the SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE
Here's a short article for your oil dependence speech.
Buddy Rice took the straightaway at 160 miles per hour, his car burning 100% ethanol.
The noise at the Richmond International Raceway was deafening. Cars roared around the track, with the green flag waving. In the stands, fans wore ear plugs, using hand signals to communicate.
The sound of the track was familiar. The smell wasn't. The smell of gasoline-familiar at many racetracks-was missing. In its place was a faint smell. Somewhat sweet. The smell of burning alcohol.
Rice, winner of the 2004 Indianapolis 500, wasn't the only one with ethanol in his tank.
This year, for the first time, the Indy Racing League is being run entirely on ethanol. Several days before the Richmond race, Buddy Rice took time out to talk about the renewable fuel.
"It's pretty cool we can do this," Rice said. "There's lots of interest."
The Indy Racing League has not used gasoline in many years, Rice explains. Until last year, Indy racers used methanol, a fuel made from many sources but most frequently from nonrenewable natural gas. In 2006, Indy racers used a 90% methanol/10% ethanol blend. This year it's 100% ethanol.
The drivers like it, Rice says.
Ethanol is a high octane fuel. Very high. Gasoline has octane ratings in the high 80s and low 90s. For methanol, the figure is roughly 107. Ethanol's octane rating is 113 or higher.
In the words of the Indy Racing League, ethanol's "high octane rating delivers strong engine performance by helping engines resist detonation so they can run higher compression ratios."
Another benefit, according to Rice: smaller fuel tanks, since ethanol gets better mileage than methanol. That means shorter pit stops. It also means smoother handling on the track.
Rice says the switch to ethanol happened because of hard work by his former teammate, Paul Dana.
"Paul Dana deserves all the credit," Rice says. Dana's determination drove forward a deal between ethanol producers, technology vendors and the Indy league. "A tough group to pull together," according to Rice. Tragically, Paul Dana died in a race car accident in 2006.
But several Indy drivers are making sure Dana's work continues. Rice has appeared at ethanol plants to promote the fuel and says he'll do it again. Jeff Simmons, who drives a car for "Team Ethanol," has done the same.
"I hope the public gets the message," Rice says.
If they do, race car drivers like Buddy Rice, Jeff Simmons and Paul Dana will be one of the reasons. And it turns out these three aren't the first race car drivers to be enthusiastic about ethanol. A driver named Leon Duray finished the Indy 500 in a car filled with ethanol-in 1927.
Back at the Richmond raceway, the checkered flag is down. Rice is fifth-seven positions up from where he started, not easy on a short racetrack. "A good race with a solid top-five finish," Rice says. "It gives us good momentum going into next weekend."
Buddy Rice is off to the next race, with a tank filled with ethanol.
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The above is an excerpt from Freedom from Oil by David Sandalow. It is a potential response to the Memo from the President. Join the group now!
For more information about David Sandalow andhis book Freedom from Oil, please visit www.freedomfromoilbook.com.
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Comments: 10
What is your take on this? Why has methanol been used for so long?
I find it odd that popular culture has deemed the Ethanol industry as the cause of rising food prices.
It is an easy thing to do because most people have no idea where their food comes from - or where it goes. In this case, the where it goes is what drives grain commodity prices. Most people do not know that they pay an additional subsidy to ship grain overseas.
In short, we export more corn than we use to manufacture ethanol.
Why is no one blaming exports for the high price of food? Inquiring minds want to know.
The worts mistake of US it was makind its dependance on gasoline, even gasoline is a good fuel but diesel is beter douhg, I can tell that even to produce bio-diesel it only cost like .15 or .35 cents to make, you can make from zugar cane, old oil, even by fries oil, and only cost a tird part of what etanol cost, and by the way, its have a very funny and tasty smell of fries... yeah jajaja.
So continuing with what I was telling, even that U.S is one of the most powerful contries in the world, is the most dependent on gasoline. Come ON!!! U.S have a great research on atomic energy, they have an unlimited technology under hand that is not even in market or know by other countries, so is kind unfair, because they want to take money out of our pockets, they know if every sitizen dont buy more fuel, some how the country economy would fall, because it will not have that many taxes comming in.
So between ethanol and bio diesel, I preffer diesel, somehow, gasoline expand trough the air, mean while diesel stays on the ground, so people what you deside.? breath gasoline all the time. Or have it stick on the ground? lating american countries know that the answer is bio-diesel, because in some part of south america they are allready making it, and only cost like a dollar tweni the galon of it, so is very cheat, and is so abundant, and it could be found in allmost any material, even in old vegetables, and in old oils, mean while ethanol is more expensive and hard to produce. So this is my share for today.
Thanks all who read my message
There is a new bacterial process that is coming online. It uses organic wastes, things that go to the burner or landfill. THAT makes sense: fuel plus helping us put less in the trash heap.
Conservation is our fastest and most accessible means to help us be less dependent upon foreign oil. Here in Japan, the average person puts only 1/3rd the carbon into the air, compared to us in the USA.
We make simple lifestyle changes now, or have them forced upon us by War and other catastropies.
Lee In Mashiko Japan, Minneapolis USA
Again, why is Ethanol driving up the price, but exports are not?
The argument that we shouldn't be making Ethanol from "food" is rather bizarre since "food" in the form of DG and DDG is the major co-product of Ethanol production.
I agree that conservation is the fastest most accessible means of dealing with energy dependency - but it is only one part of a larger picture that must include: ethanol, bio-diesel, hybrid and plug-in electric.
Conservation has two problems. One is that we obviously cannot do it significantly except under pressure of high prices, and not much even then. The other is that OPEC needs to merely lower their output and their production to make less gas and get even more profit by shorting demand at the new level.