Ethanol- Alternative Fuel or Farce?

Our State and Federal politicians have pulled one of the greatest scams in the history of governments. What started out as a replacement for the gasoline additive MTBE Congress has mandated the use of Ethanol as an alternative fuel to reduce our need for fossil (petroleum) fuels.

Most gasolines sold in the Midwest and East already had about 10% Ethanol by volume. Recent Federal regulations have forced the use of Ethanol up to 85% by volume and are forcing automobile makers to produce Flex-fuel cars.

MTBE is both an octane enhancer and an oxygenate. Oxygenates are required in California gasolines to reduce pollutants caused by incomplete burning of gasoline in the engine.

California banned MTBE because of possible ground water contamination. Seems that a few underground service station tanks were found to be leaking. Some scientists suggest that MTBE could be harmful if it gets into underground water aquifers. However, the EPA feels that not enough is known about the harmful affects of MTBE to warrant setting limits for it in drinking water.

As is typical in California, rather than fix the problem, they banned MTBE without doing an economic or risk analysis. Of course it never occurred to them to require better underground storage facilities, e.g. double-walled tanks, leak detection devices, concrete tank containers, etc.

Naturally, other states followed California's lead and banned MTBE in favor of Ethanol.

Since there are no pipelines for transporting ethanol, the ethanol has to be trucked or shipped through the Panama Canal. Some estimates have shown using ethanol in California gasolines would add another $0.50 per gallon.

The nominal rationale for adding ethanol to gasoline is to improve the supply of gasoline and add an oxygenate. However, is this the real reason and is it a wise move?

In this country ethanol is made from corn and other grain products. The process requires a lot of heat. The heat comes from furnaces that burn natural gas.

It takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than you get out of it when it is burned. A recent study found that it takes 1.49 gallons of ethanol to make a gallon of ethanol. This takes into account the energy required to grow the corn, harvest it, transport it to the distillery, convert it to Ethanol, and transport the Ethanol to terminals to blend into gasoline.

Also, Ethanol contains less than 70% as much energy as gasoline (77,000 BTU/Gal. versus 116,000 BTU/Gal. for gasoline). Therefore, you would have to burn 1.5 gallons of Ethanol to drive a car as far as a gallon of gasoline would.

Using about 3 gallons of Ethanol to save a gallon of gasoline is hardly a way to improve our use of energy resources.

The real reason the government mandates that ethanol be added to gasoline is to provide another market for farmers' corn crops. Now the government has mandated the use of Ethanol as an alternative fuel to replace petroleum-base gasoline and is providing subsidies to farmers who grow corn to make gasoline.

THIS IS NUTS!

Not only has this crazy idea increased the cost of gasoline considerably, it has raised the cost of many food products dependent on corn, including meat. Corn is used a feed for a variety of farm animals, including beef, chickens, and pigs.

This insane Federal policy has not decreased our need for oil imports, it has raised the cost of many food products, and it has created food shortages around the world.

So the next time you hear a politician say that Ethanol is helping our energy situation, just smile and say, "Yeah, right!"

What can you do about it? Write your State and Federal Congress people and tell them to stop this madness. Better yet, at the next election vote these idiots out of office.