Alternate Route

Jul 24, 2008 - Amber Waves, Rising Tide

It seems like any interesting ideas aren't thoroughly thought through anymore.

Take ethanol. A possible alternative to oil for fuel, but before you could snap your fingers we were rushing headlong into thinking all we had to do was turn all our food into fuel and issuing government mandates on how much had to be produced by a certain date, all seemingly without regard to the obvious effects and problems of efficiency.

And heaven forbid you question ethanol. Why you must hate the planet or worse yet, you love the oil companies.

My own experience with ethanol is less than impressive. An "up to 10% blend" lead to an almost 10% decrease in mileage and the blend only cost about 2.5% less per gallon. That's not saving anything. It's not saving me money. It's certainly not saving any gasoline if I have to put more fuel in my vehicle to travel the same distance. This seems a nightmare of our own creation.

The governor of Texas has asked the EPA to temporarily waive the regulations requiring ever-increasing amounts of ethanol to be produced and used. The EPA has posponed their decision that was due today because it needs more time "to review more than 15,000 public comments and consult with other departments."

At least it sounds like they're going to consider that maybe this whole idea needs a little more thought before we put it into full production.

Read more at the NY Times and Associated Press

3:25 am | Categories: ethanol Permalink | Alert Administrator

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