Gasohol, why did we sit on our hands for 25 years?

Question

During Reagan's first (or second) oil crisis, gasohol was introduced. It was 30% cheaper than the old "regular" gas we used to be allowed to burn in the u.s.

The gasohol ( I used it) didn't freeze up in the winter like regular gas, it didn't require additonal paraphanalia (catalytic converters etc.) and my car ran just fine.

Now we have expensive unleaded, here in California. Our state government has mandated that a cancer causing agent be added to it (they just recently removed it; after ten years of drinking it in our groundwater).

And the "new" gasohol gets a new name and we are being told it's going to cost more...

I guess my question is.... why didn't we do anything over the last 25 years to introduce gasohol to California's system.. shoot, it would have saved us a bundle!

Answer 1

<>Gasohol, like the new "corn gas," is just another "fad" cooked up by the gigantic oil corporations to placate the suckers.  None of it was (or is) ever intended to replace fossil fuels.  Now the oil companies are saying that, since there is so much demand for ethanol, they aren't going to build new refineries, so they can jack the prices up even higher, claiming "declining profits and increased overhead."  The reality is that the technology exists to make cars so fuel efficient, even on gasoline, that the oil companies would lose billions (and the environment would take a lot less damage, too!).  You know that won't happen until EVERYONE gets fed up enough to do something about it.

Answer 2

Technically, we already have Gasahol.  10% or so of our gas is an ethanol additive.  However, Ethanol like E85 is not the solution.  Ethanol returns barely enough energy that is used to grow and produce it.  That energy often comes from fossil fuels like diesel and coal.

The best near future options we have are the following:

1.  Electric Cars - By the end of the EV1 program, before GM took back all the leased cars and destroyed them (now why would they do that?), they had 120 mile range.  Sure it was only a 2-seater, but you could make a Camry sized one that could get 70 or 80 mile range with the same battery set.  That would work great for millions of families that have 2 or more vehicles.   Emissions from electric vehicles are less, even after electrical generation and trasmission, then from gas engines.  Furthermore, most charging would occur at night, when power plants are underutilized.  The battery technology is here and good enough.  Maybe not perfect, but good enough.  The California Air Resources Board blew it by rescinding their zero emissions requirement.

2.  Plug-in hybrids.  They exist now.  People have taken their Toyota Priuses and voided their warranties by adding additional batteries, a plug, and some other mods, and made their Priuses mostly electric only the first 40 miles or so.  These changes resulted in average fuel economy well over 100 mpg.  If some tinkerers can do this, so can giant Toyota motors.  GM is supposedly going to bring one out in 2010 called the Chevy Volt.  I'm not going to hold my breath, as I bet they'll keep pushing it back, or botch it badly so it still somehow gets no more than 40 mpg.

3.  Biodiesel.  Unlike Ethanol, Biodiesel, using vegetable oils, has a much better energy ratio.  Again, there are tinkerers running diesels with some modifications, on straight vegetable oil.

Another option you'll here about is Hydrogen.  Hydrogen is and always will be the fuel of the future.  There are just way too many problems associated with hydrogen.  How to produce it cleanly, how much energy it takes to produce hydrogen from water, safe handling and distribution, leakage as hydrogen escapes because its the lightest element, etc.

Answer 3

Gasohol was a detriment to most of the fuel systems back then.  It had a high rate of eating up gaskets and seals.

It also takes 40% more energy to produce a gallon of methanol than the energy that Methanol is capable of producing from that one gallon.

It's nothing but a welfare program for the farmers!

Answer 4

Economics.

Ethanol is more expensive than gasoline.

Without some heavy incentives and subsidies, ethanol is simply not competitive as a motor fuel.

Answer 5

When it first came out we did not know it but it trashed the gaskets in the motor and the car would leak oil very bad. This killed Gasohol.