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Controversial Ethanol Being Forced On Us
By Mr Ethanol | January 28, 2008
Atlanta Journal Constitution:
In the next month or so, you will possibly notice that when you buy gasoline for your vehicle, the dispenser will be freshly labeled “may contain ethanol.”
In fact, over the next several months, the majority of gasoline in the greater Atlanta area and in time the entire state will contain approximately 10% ethanol. This is being introduced by Georgia Department of Agriculture as a “voluntary” measure. While voluntary to the petroleum companies, it is far from “voluntary” for the general consumer.
Inevitably, by spring, all gas you buy will be ethanol-bearing. You will have no choice, simply because the big oil companies that distribute the fuel for all the major brands will be mixing ethanol into their gasoline. Ethanol producers receive a 51-cent per gallon federal subsidy. Just remember that the subsidy comes out of your pocket.
You may think ethanol is a good thing and you are helping the nation wean itself off dependency on foreign oil. You could not be more mistaken.
To make 1 gallon of corn-based ethanol, you need in excess of a gallon of fossil fuel by some estimates. Other forms of ethanol, such as from wood chips and grass, require even more fossil fuel. Sugar beets and sugar cane ethanol require slightly less fuel.
That does not apparently include the cost of the fuel to transport the finished product by rail or truck. Unlike gasoline, ethanol cannot be transported by pipeline since it picks up and retains water, rendering it unusable.
Now here is where it gets really interesting. Ethanol requires in excess of 3 gallons of water to be produced. Refining crude oil to make gasoline takes maybe a gallon of water.
In a time when the entire country for the most part is starving for water, we are wasting it to make an alternative fuel?
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January 29th, 2008 at 9:04 am
I’d like to see the sources for the figures quoted.
Here’s an alternative headline:
Petrol being forced on us: destroying your children’s future.
Just btw, who said ethanold was controversial?