Ethanol (alcohol)

Corn is not the ideal crop for producing ethanol on a yield per acre basis compared to many other crops, but it is what is used for figures for comparison of ethanol to gasoline. That skews the data in a negative way unfairly against ethanol from the start.

Myth: Ethanol production is using up our food.

Fact: Most of the corn grown in this country is not used for human food, it is used for animal feed. That is the corn they are using to make ethanol. An even bigger fact is that the production of corn based ethanol only uses the starch in the corn, and what remains is called distillers grain which is still used for cattle feed. Cows can't digest the starch in the corn anyway, and they actually gain more weight on the distillers grain that is left over from ethanol production, which still has all the protein and nutrients in it, than if they were just fed the regular corn.

Myth: Ethanol production takes a huge amount of water.

To put ethanol production into perspective, it takes*:

• 1,851 gallons of water to refine a barrel of crude oil.

• 150 gallons of water to make one Sunday newspaper.

• 24 gallons of water to make one pound of plastic.

Myth: Biofuels are subsidized or they wouldn't be viable.

Fact: Oil is subsidized as well - in the form of our military being deployed around the world to the hotspots where most of the oil seems to be. We don't see that cost at the pump, but we do pay for that in our taxes. How much does a barrel of oil, or a gallon of gasoline really cost when you factor that cost into it? Oil does get other subsidies as well, I see new ones pretty regular when reading biofuels vs petroleum debates.

One of the results that effects every citizen of the U.S. is, that every dollar that is spent on ethanol and other biofuels in this country stays in this country. The money doesn't go to a country that hates us and uses that money against us.

Ethanol and biofuel create jobs here in the US.

Brazil has an ethanol program that has been in place for 30 years, and they are very successful with it. I believe the law there states that all gas stations have to have ALL the fuel choices available, and drivers can choose what is the best deal that day to fuel up their cars. (Most people there have flex fuel vehicles).

It costs auto manufacturers less than $50 dollars more to make a vehicle "flex fuel".

Ethanol is 105 octane (thats why they use it for racing fuel).  Normal gasoline is 87 octane.  While it is true that there is less btus of energy in a gallon of ethanol vs. a gallon of gasoline, if engines were optimized to take advantage of ethanol's higher octane rating, it would make up much or maybe all of the mileage difference.  

Ethanol burns much cleaner than gasoline. Better for air quality and also better for engine life.  

The first ever "flex fuel vehicle" was the Model T Ford.  There is a video about that in the links below.  

One thing I saw in my reading lately that I haven't seen in the news has to do with a chemical they are or were putting in gasoline called MTBE. It said something about lots of MTBE being found in our ground water all over the place and that ethanol is a good substitute for MTBE. You can do an internet search on MTBE vs ethanol if you are interested.

Biodiesel (vegetable oil based diesel fuel)

A diesel engine will run very well on vegetable oil based fuels and has MANY advantages over petroleum based fuels. Those stories you may have heard about people running their diesel cars on old french fry oil are true. Now before you go off and try to dump a jug of Wesson oil in your fuel tank there are some things you need to know. The book From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank by Joshua Tickell is a great book for anyone interested in this. A lot of the same arguments that are pro-ethanol apply to biodiesel as well. In addition, here are some highlights of the book:

Dr. Rudolf Diesel first developed the diesel engine in 1895 with the full intention of running it on a variety of fuels including vegetable oils and he showed his engine at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 using peanut oil as fuel.

Waste vegetable oil can be processed into biodiesel which will run in any diesel vehicle without any modification. Individuals are making biodiesel in their garages out of old cooking oil all over the country.

Vegetable oil and biodiesel are non toxic and biodegrade much faster than petroleum. If there was ever a major vegetable oil spill it would be a much better situation than a petroleum spill (up to 98 percent biodegration in 3 weeks for biodiesel).

Vegetable oil and biodiesel are completely renewable fuels and can be grown here on land the government currently pays farmers not to grow on.

Carbon neutral. Carbon dioxide released from burning biodiesel is absorbed by next years crop.

Most other emissions are far better for biodiesel than petroleum. Only exception is Nitrous Oxide emissions which are slightly worse.

Great lubricating qualities for engine and said to increase engine life.

There are many crops with far higher vegetable oil production per acre than soybeans. Soy biodiesel is always what is used for economic comparison but soy is not the best choice, just as corn is not the best choice for ethanol production. The best crop for biodiesel BY FAR is algae, which doesn't even use food producing farm land.

Solar and Wind Power

I recently heard a radio program that had a guest that was a Stanford University Professor named Mark Z. Jacobson that said that solar and wind could each power the whole earth on their own, using existing technology. That included cars. With a combination of solar, wind and hydro power being used, they could help each of the individual technologies weaknesses, like if the wind isn't blowing someplace, the sun might be shining etc. He wrote an essay about it. If interested, you can read that essay here.