Why do people love ethanol? why is it being mandated??

Question

im sorry, ethanol is not a solution to anything, its not as efficent basically meaning it gets LESS mpg then gas, its also puts off more pollution then gas. on top of this lawnmowers and certain smaller engines (lawnmowers, snowblowers and so on) cannot take anything with ethanol in them.

here in wisconsin its 10% ethanol in allmost the whole state at all gas stations and also with the state giving gas stations grants to sell E85 along with regular gas with 10% ethanol.

food costs are going through the roof, corn has doubled in price if not allmost tripled as more farms are converting food crops to bio fuel crops.

why is this c**p FUEL thats less efficent being force down my throwt without me getting to pick and decide if i want to use it on my own.

did i mention that theres a federal subsidy on e85? that means ethanol e85 is discounted 50 cents per gallon. so in all means minus the 50cents and its the same price as regular gas.

simply why?

Answer 1

My favorite s***w up in this country is the untapped methane gas/fumes pouring out of all our landfills....can be converted for cars/trucks, yet big oil & gov. won't use it on a large scale either. Another greedy joke played on us.~ ethanol sucks. ~ I agree with you to.**EDIT Thumbs down? Think it out first...if your really able to. ** Ethanol eats plastic & rubber gaskets too. So go chew on that one too.

Answer 2

I believe we are being misled by the powers that wish to keep OIL the "only source" of energy - so to speak.  To say that vegetable and grain prices are sky rocketing because of ethanol is just pure c**p.  There is so much land to grow crops on that it is "silly."  There are a number of crops that are better than others.  Artichokes for example are better to use than corn for many reasons.  Soy and even YEAST http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa...  

are other alternative sources.  Don't believe all the negative press on ethanol and alternative fuels because it is VERY LIKELY spawned by the white collar CRIMINALS that shove OIL down our throats and that work SIDE BY SIDE with the car manufacturers to keep gasoline the number one fuel choice.

Answer 3

while ethanol does have its issues, it is not harmful to internal combustion engines. in fact it makes a good fuel, though it does require a richer mixture to run properly. ethanol does NOT pollute more than gasoline does, but it does not pollute any less either. if an engine is tuned properly, you can actually make more power running ethanol than gasoline since ethanol has a higher octane rating than gasoline does.

is ethanol the solution to our energy needs? not hardly. however ethanol is a renewable source of energy, and has its uses. as for why ethanol is being mandated, many in congress still live in the late 60's regarding emissions output, and the myth that ethanol lowers emissions. that had companies like archer daniels midland who have large corn contracts, and want them to be worth more in order to make more money have helped push the legislation through.

but the rise in food costs is more than just higher corn prices, it is higher fuel prices as well. farmers are paying more to grow and harvest their crop, transportation companies are paying more to get those crops to market, and commodities speculators are driving food prices higher as well.

the only way we are going to end our energy problems is;

1: drill for more oil where the oil is. in the anwr, on the continental shelves, in the gulf of mexico, and in north dakota. we cant allow china to drill for oil 45 miles off our shores, and us not drill there.

2: we have to develop alternative forms of energy that are viable, and build an infrastructure to support them.

3: we have to make cars that are fuel efficient, and still capable of doing the jobs that need to be done.

4: we have to add refinery capacity.

5: we have to reduce the number of required gasoline blends from 40+ to 2-3 at most.

one more thing, we need to get government out of the mix and let business do what needs to be done. until that happens, we wont be doing well.

Answer 4

easy!

who grow corn? and who are they voting for?

Answer 5

Because it has helped reduce some demand for foreign oil.

See this article:

Ethanol slashes record high gas and food prices



Ethanol is reducing food costs by lowering gas prices, some experts say.

According to one analyst from Merrill Lynch, ethanol lowers gas and oil prices by 15%. Another study by Iowa State University found that ethanol reduces gas prices by at least 29 to 40 cents per gallon. Rising energy costs play the dominant role in the price of food because raw ingredients like corn comprise only 20% of the price of food. The other 80% is shipping, packaging, processing and advertising costs.



In the past year, food prices have increased only 4.6% while energy prices have increased 26.4%, according to the Consumer Price Index Report. The president of OPEC, Chakib Khelil, has stated oil could easily reach $200 per barrel within two years.

A driver who buys E10 can save at least ten cents a gallon—and that can add up to hundreds of savings in one year. But eliminating ethanol from the U.S. fuel supply would instantly cause gasoline prices to soar an additional $1.10 per gallon over the current price, according to economist John Urbanchuck.

Answer 6

'cos methanol is very dangerous.... just kidding. Some people work hard to achieve in something such as in sports, business, research, adventure ...., but most of the people who are lazy are in a  mentally vaccuum state, and they beleive they are lack in something . They think they are not so important. They try to show their exixtance by engaging in something which don't need talent or hard work like smoking & drinking

Answer 7

Because it is clean, renewable and made in America.  Gasoline is none of those things.  The only c**p fuel out there is oil imported from the middle east that helps to finance hajis making roadside bombs..  Sure, ethanol may make the price of food go up but rising oil prices are making the cost of EVERYTHING go up, including food.  And it does not hurt small engines or fuel systems at all.  I have been using E85 ONLY in my non flex fuel 4 cylinder ford focus for 2 years with ZERO problems.  I'll support clean, renewable, American-made energy any day over foreign oil.  And here where I live gas is $3.75, while E85 is $2.45.  How high will gasoline prices have to go before people like you who are brainwashed by Exxon wake up and smell the coffee?!   Or should I say "ethanol"?

Ethanol is such a c**p fuel that it creates good-payingjobs here.  What a horrible thing. It's so bad that it also reduces the trade deficit and has lowered the current price of gasoline by about 50 cents a gallon, via decreased demand for gasoline.  It also reduces global warming, another bad thing and reduces money that goes to terrorists. We wouldn't want to do that either.  As far as the fuel itself goes, it's such a c**p fuel that it burns 500 degrees cooler than gasoline while simultaneously delivering 15% more horsepower than gasoline and creating 75% fewer engine deposits.  In fact, for all of these crappy reasons the Indy car racing series switched to it last year and NASCAR is planning to do the same.  I don't think professional race car drivers would be putting a "c**p fuel"  into their million dollar racing machines, especially if it ruined the car. The drivers love it cause they get more horsepower and their engine stays cooler.  They can go faster on ethanol than they can on gasoline. Looks like it's time for you to get educated on ethanol.

http://www.usagnet.com/story-national.ph...

Answer 8

The Government wants us off gas. Ethanol isn't viewed as a solution, it's a temporary fix. Both Ethanol and Gas are incredibly expensive to produce but at least Ethanol (corn) is a renewable resource. Our Government would rather keep the money inside the U.S. than give it to our enemies in the middle east, so it's worth it to them to subsidize the Ethanol. That being said I agree that Ethanol is not the best idea as you can feed a family for a year with the amount of corn it takes to fill up an average car's gas tank with E85 (which still contains 15% gas)

Answer 9

Silly politicians voted for it based on the opinions of ignorant analysts and foolish constituents.

Ethanol, on top of being bad for your engine, is neither economical, nor environmentally sound.

Diesel from vegetable sources is another (mostly) idiotic concept.  The cost and environmental impact of using up all of our arable land for oil is insane.  

The one exception that I've seen is algal oil - amazingly you can produce orders of magnitude more oil from algae than you can get from any other bio source.  The best part is that you don't have to displace food crops to do it - the best place for an algae greenhouse is a place with lots of sunlight - soil is not a factor.

Right now, extraction of the oil from the algae is not economical, but there's a lot of research going into it, and I fully expect that one day, we'll get a substantial amount of energy from genetically modified algae.

Somebody mentioned land-fill methane... some landfills have found economically viable ways of capturing and using it, but methane production from all the landfills and sewer plants in the world wouldn't even come close to displacing, or even reasonably reducing the hydrocarbons coming out of the ground.

Production numbers for oil and gas are absurdly high - Saudi Arabia alone produces some 12 million barrels of oil per DAY - we are in the process of increasing that number by 25% by exploiting fields that are virtually untapped.  All the ethanol and vegetable oil in the universe isn't going to match this production at any price.

The real solution - regardless of where the energy comes from, is to use less fuel... I know it sounds absurd, but we need to rethink public transportation and city planning - the current paradigm of a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot is flawed when you have to choose whether the corn goes to feed the chicken or to make ethanol to burn in the car.

Answer 10

Ethanol is nothing but taking away food from hungry little children to use for fuel that is inefficient  and Cargill making record profits!

Answer 11

Let it be now as I do not trust the Arabs. Eventually they will use oil as a weapon against us.

Answer 12

That's such a good question. I wish I knew why we are taking food from hungry mouths and putting it into something extremely inefficient.

What irritates the c**p outta me is that there are hydrogen cars ON THE MARKET!!!

We have no way of filling them though, because for some reason there are no hydrogen fill stations. This would solve so many problems AND put water vapor in the air. Here in California, that's desperately needed.

My solution is to simply walk or bike to where I need to go. (My dad was hit by a truck though, while riding his bike so now my bicycle is ruled out.) I'm getting out of the US as soon as possible. I'm not going to take this BS anymore.