Dave Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 Even the DOE says that Ethanol is more expensive to produce than gasoline but there are tax incentives that reduces its end price to make it a viable alternative. http://www.eere.energy.gov/cleancities/blends/pdfs/37135.pdf Then you win the game. Happy? Oh, they forgot to figure in that as the production volume increases the cost per erg will go down. Simple guns and butter economics. Also, the main point you're ignoring and derailing to a side argument instead, is that ethonol is NOT the solution to any energy shortage or environmental problems. Every "enviro nut case" knows that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunar Shadow Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 Also, the main point you're ignoring and derailing to a side argument instead, is that ethonol is NOT the solution to any energy shortage or environmental problems. Every "enviro nut case" knows that. Then Why are they pushing it so?? The environmental lobby praises Brazil for breaking free of foreign oil and switching to 100% Ethanol but what they ignore is that fact that they cleared thousands of acres of rainforest's to make the room to grow the sugar cane to produce the ethanol in turn doing loads more damage to the environment in the process aside form the fact the ethanol causes more pollution in the first place. I mean Why the hell are we even looking at this why not look at real advances like oh lets say BMW has a car in production THIS YEAR that is a hydrogen car it also comes with a tank for gasoline to handle the infer structure issues in the meantime. now that is an advance but the environmental lobby will not praise it because you need nuclear power plants to produce the hydrogen to keep up with the demand and since everyone is convinced then nuclear power is so dangerous and harmful to the environment (evidence points to the contrary it is safe cheap and abundant) so the hydrogen car might not survive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGJ@ReligionisBullshit Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 Even the DOE says that Ethanol is more expensive to produce than gasoline but there are tax incentives that reduces its end price to make it a viable alternative. http://www.eere.energy.gov/cleancities/blends/pdfs/37135.pdf Then you win the game. Happy? Oh, they forgot to figure in that as the production volume increases the cost per erg will go down. Simple guns and butter economics. Also, the main point you're ignoring and derailing to a side argument instead, is that ethonol is NOT the solution to any energy shortage or environmental problems. Every "enviro nut case" knows that. Domestic production volume of oil has not increased significantly in the past 30 years. Also, the theory that oil reserves will run out in 40 - 70 years is a false assumption since that theory has been around since the '70's and the number of years predicted remains relatively the same throughout that entire time according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Outlook as well as the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Ethanol may not be the solution, I don't think there is a single replacement solution, but E85 may have a small effect in demand but only if a significant number of vehicles were E85. Currently about 10% of the gas you put in your car right now is Ethanol, but Ethanol is not even considered an "alternative fuel" unless it comes in the E85 version. It is a wee bit cheaper per gallon at the pump, but not much. About a dime a gallon. Most vehicles that run on E85 get a drop of around 25% in fuel economy vs. gasoline. Also to run that car for a year would cost 20% more at the pump while reducing green house gas emissions by roughly 18% over a gasoline car. Since it is cheaper at the pump but more expensive in the long run and makes a bit of an impact on the environment (but not much since there are not a significant number of E85 vehicles in use right now) I'll let you make your own decision if it is worth it. E85 vehicles account for around 85% of all alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles available but only about .4% of all registered vehicles. Hydrogen also has its drawbacks since our current technology draws the hydrogen from coal and requires the use of waste disposal sites all across the U.S. for all the CO2 it produces. They are even looking at dumping the CO2 containers in the ocean so the environmentally concious might want to think about that. Production volume of oil in the US has remained steady for over 30 years and has even been known to decrease at times for various reasons. This is why we either need to increase our production by building more refineries, drilling in lands currently off limits or find more reserves in International Waters. If we don't do this then ethenol and other alternative fuels will be our only hope to get rid of our dependence on foreign oil which is currently around 14 million barrels a day according to the Energy Information Administration. Of course this doesn't do a damn thing about Global Warming. Our consumption of oil continually rises and at its current rate is projected to increase by 30% by the year 2030. President Bush announced last night during his State of the Union address that he would like to cut our gasoline consumption by 20% over the next 10 years. He wants to do this by increasing the amount of alternative fuels to around 35 billion gallons a year and form the CAFE' standards (fuel economy standards.) If he can reduce the consumption by 20% over the next 10 years it will reduce the oil we get from the Persian Gulf to 0 including the increase in demand, but we will still rely upon other OPEC regions such as North Africa, West Africa, and South America. I don't think that Ethanol alone, with the information I provided above, can make that much of an impact by itself. Edit Add: All the goals of the current administration are geared towards strategic considerations and have little to do with protecting the environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted January 25, 2007 Share Posted January 25, 2007 Also, the main point you're ignoring and derailing to a side argument instead, is that ethonol is NOT the solution to any energy shortage or environmental problems. Every "enviro nut case" knows that. Then Why are they pushing it so?? "They" aren't. The growers and producers are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts