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EPA might 'slash' Ethanol in gas

GRLambert

Touring Rider
Anyone besides me see the article Friday that suggests that the Government is considering 'slashing' (their word) the amount of Ethonol in Gasoline due to the reduced corn crop and resultant rise in corn price? I saw it in two different news services (USA Today and MSN) so I hope that there is something to it. Supposedly a decision is to be made in November.

We'll see...:banghead
 
That would be really great news. I found a source for 0E fuel a month ago. My car and both bikes are getting better mileage. A break even due to the higher price of the gas but I'm happy.
 
Hmmm, that contradicts a story in the Wall Street Journal last week about them increasing the alcohol percentage to +15%.

I'll see if I can find it.
 
The European community has decided to end the subsidies for growers that provide the base for producing ethanol by 2015 or 2016.
If there is no incentive to make it, it may go away.
Maybe we see a similar trend over here
 
If ethanol gets slashed, I would expect the corn lobby to put out contracts on some government officials.
 
I wouldn't put much faith in the rationality of such a choice. Washington is pay to play and the corn lobby has bought a lot of the (subsititute your own epithet) folks in Congress.
The idea of using a food crop to burn, especially when it take so much petroleum to make it that there is little net energy gain, has never made sense except as a subsidy for farmers.
Brazilians make it from sugar cane and so could we if sugar wasn't such a screwed up commodity in this country- long history of political corruption there as well.

We're already seeing a lot of inflation in food prices, a concern clearly reflected in public surveys but hidden by the inaccurate way the govt does COLA math and corn isn't what's doing it yet- at the moment its a combo Bernanke printing money and fuel prices...
 
As I understand these are followup stories to a request for a ethanol mandate waiver filed by AR and NC. That waiver request was to avoid having to comply with the Renewable Fuels Standards (RFS) which call for increased production of ethanol fuels as a way of reducing dependence on foreign oil. The ruling on the waiver is due by November 13. Changes in the corn supply have caused speculation the EPA may back off the RFS requirements by granting the waivers and other actions.

While this may mean the end, at least in the short term, to some of the RFS mandates and things like E15 etc., don't expect ethanol to go away. Ethanol, even at the current prices, is a reasonable alternative for fuel blends to comply with pollution standards. Until someone comes up with a replacement of ethanol for that purpose it will remain as a component.

The few articles that I have read about European ethanol subsidies may go away, but that seems to be more the result of the combination of the market providing high prices and the need for EU governments to cut back in any way possible to deal with their economic problems.

While you are understandably looking for crooks and villains in D.C. spend some time trying to unravel wanting to eat, wanting to be independent in fuel and being able to breath. In one way or another this is all wrapped up in what you want to dismantle.

Hallelujahs may be in order but it is not a repeal but a slow down in the expansion you are celebrating.
 
The main reason the European Union backed off from the ethanol subsidies was exactly the reasons that are cited here: There was no evidence for a net gain in pollution or energy consumption, ergo no more incentive to produce and add it to gasoline.
Thorough test have shown (as many Toms, Dicks, and Harrys were able to confirm) that fuel mileage in a vehicle DROPS when using E10 or E15.
This in addition to considering the energy required to make the stuff.
Most of the ethanol in Europe is made from rapeseed.
 
Just because I am from fly-over-land don't assume I am in favor of ethanol.

The EU backing off from ethanol has everything to do with the math as pointed out. The math is different, not in how it is calculated but how it is weighted. Vehicle size, average miles per trip, and general approach to pollution control makes cross system comparisons problematic in my book. Definitely of value but problematic because they require you to think. Requiring the American public to go beyond sound bite analysis is very difficult. In addition ethanol was not seen or sold as a way of gaining the myth of energy independence. The end result is no gain for the EU in ethanol.
 
You would think so. My uncle got a lot more for his shine than they get for ethanol.

For the more previous post................Hallelujah!:dance

For the quote............Hallelujah! I pay $60 a gallon for the stuff I drink.

I did also hear the rumor that E may be cut from fuel, for a while. The whole corn shortage thing is a myth as well. If we needed more corn for fuel, we could simply export less. Remember, we grow more than anyone else. Then, as previously stated, we could use sugar cane. Alcohol is fermented from surgar, so.........

Personally, I could care less what my vehicles run on, with three conditions:
1. we do not bankrupt ourselves developing the new "green" fuel
2. I do not have to make major changes or sacrafices in how/where I drive
3. I can afford the crap.

Serioulsy, if the next great fuel was the tears of baby harp seals, so be it, as long as the change fits the three criteria above.
 
Ethanols the best

I've been running it since the early eighties I prefer it. Why just this weekend I cranked my R1150RT the gas tanks been on the shelf for 2 years complete with Ethanol and no staybill (sounds like a duck) the bike cranked right up runs fine. Indy cars been running pure Ethanol every since I can remember haven't seen any problems there. I'll never forget the moaning and groaning when they took Lead out of gas, some people still haven't let that one go.

And lets not forgot THE HEMP CAR

http://www.hempcar.org/
 
So E10 & E15 fuels pollutes less.

But they're less efficent, so we get fewer miles per gallon and pay more for it. So we end up using more of the less polluting, but higher priced gas?

Sounds like those toilets that use less water, but you have to flush 2-3 times more to get the job done. :banghead
 
First post?

I've been running it since the early eighties I prefer it. Why just this weekend I cranked my R1150RT the gas tanks been on the shelf for 2 years complete with Ethanol and no staybill (sounds like a duck) the bike cranked right up runs fine. Indy cars been running pure Ethanol every since I can remember haven't seen any problems there. I'll never forget the moaning and groaning when they took Lead out of gas, some people still haven't let that one go.

And lets not forgot THE HEMP CAR

http://www.hempcar.org/

Welcome. Nice to make your first post a troll alert.
 
A couple of comments on reduced mileage with Ethanol. The energy content is about 70% of straight gas (per volume). Therefore, a E10 fuel has about 97% the energy of straight gas. E15 = 95.5% the energy. As an aside for those of us that drive cars, the EPA (about 8 miles from my office and a customer of the test systems we make) uses 100% gas for all mileage tests, as do all car manufacturers. The fuel standard was set in, I believe, the 70's and hasn't changed since. Therefore, your mileage may vary from published EPA figures.
 
I've been running it since the early eighties I prefer it. Why just this weekend I cranked my R1150RT the gas tanks been on the shelf for 2 years complete with Ethanol and no staybill (sounds like a duck) the bike cranked right up runs fine. Indy cars been running pure Ethanol every since I can remember haven't seen any problems there. I'll never forget the moaning and groaning when they took Lead out of gas, some people still haven't let that one go.

Not sure, whether this post is supposed to be taken serious or if it is indeed a troll talking, but....here are a few things:

If spelled and pronounced correctly, STABIL does not sound like a duck...

If you really left a tank full of ethanol "enriched" (what an oxymoron:banghead) untreated fuel on the shelf for 2 years, and your bike started, you have found what owners of small engines all over the U.S. are looking for...

Indy cars and dragsters run on alcohol, because they have completely different engines, which are being torn down and completely rebuilt after each race. Do this with your bike, Please!....

Unleaded gas has an ill effect on older engine's valve seats. Those people who haven't let that go, have such old vehicles. I do....
 
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