E-85 / B-100, Is this the answer?

Corn is not the answer. I like the idea of sugar cane though. Instead of looking for long-term solutions like alternate fuel sources, focus should be placed on improving efficiency of new vehicles.

 

From my understanding, the surgarcane produces more energy than corn. Even if you replaced all our gasoline with 100% plant based material, I don't think it would be enough. Coupled with the fact ethanol produces less energy gasoline (resulting in about 3% less MPG), and that we're burning food for fuel, I don't see how this could possibly be even close to a viable solution. It's merely a band-aid, and a very poor one at that.

 

It's because Brazil has tons of land for sugarcane fields and we don't. Plus, we have a tad more people and machines than they do to keep running. We just need to reduce our consumption. Not only try to find ways to maintain/grow it.

 

There isn't enough land on earth to use ethanol as a primary source of fuel. Governments in NA pushed hard and gave away hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to build ethanol refineries and to "supply" us with it. It's law in Canada to have at least 5% of our fuel based in ethanol. After you total all the numbers, we'ew doing more harm than good to the environment, spending more money and time than I can count {rich businessmen are of course building these things because they're paid to} we'll cost ourselves billions of dollars converting land, equipment and factories to make this stuff, we'll drive food prices through the roof across the whole board, we'll have a less efficient fuel and we'll destroy the land that we're using so no food can be grown there foe hundreds of years.

**** THE WORLD BABY!

 

A friend of mine rented a "Flex Fuel" pickup last week. The owners manual claims 30% reduction in fuel mileage with E85.

 

The solution is just to extract more of this country's vast oil reserves. But we dont even have the refining capacity, since it takes years and years to get them approved now. Remember the booms? They didnt have to much regulation when they were going on. The only way to really cheapen gas is to increase supply, via refineries and oil drilling. Any already found oil reserve probably will take 10+ years nowadays to extract anyways, so, chill because were in for higher prices for a while.

 

Exactly. That's why I blame the environmentalist and government for causing this. It's their fault. We have enough oil under this country and off the coasts surrounding to last centuries.

Instead of 'everyone' saying "we need to reduce our dependency on oil", we need to search, drill, and pump out much of our own product for our own good. The economy depends on it. There is no next generation solution that will revolutionize the entire world as of yet. And people need to get off their smug, holier-than-thou high-horse, sit back and relax. The world is not going to implode in on itself anytime soon. There is plenty technology to drill and produce oil in a safe manner without adversely affecting the environment. And as that is being done, the next big energy product for mass transit can be perfected and price brought down to a reasonable level for the consumer.

 

The answer is nuclear fission.

 

I agree. People are freaking out that we're running out, when in reality we aren't... I mean yeah, it's being used, but we don't have a tiny amount left.

 

You should'nt rely on CNN and other assorted MSM crap for discussions on energy issues. Other posters have already discussed the sugar content of cane vs corn, etc. What they left out is Brazil being a subtropical climate, get 3 cane harvests a years. Texas, Louisiana and Florida don't get that.

Late last year Brazil anounced the discovery of the Tupi offshore oil field. There is an estimated 8 billion barrels in that one field and Brazil continues to explore other areas offshore. It is likely the Tupi field is just one of what will be more massive discoveries.

Don't believe the ethanol hype!
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I agree, making fuel out of corn just drives up food prices and causes starvation in poor countries

sugar is less crucial to survival than corn

I like coal to oil better, nobody eats coal and the USA has the worlds largest coal reserves

 

Dan, a client of mine owns a company that just merged with Mitsui LTD, and Petrobras. The companies mergers is due to the facts that Dan's company is an Oil Shale exploration company. Petrobras has been extracting oil from shale for 10-15 years in SA. Dan has been given the rights to land in Utah that they will shortly be beginning extraction. Many people have said that extracting oil from shale is not cost effective. But, Dan says that it becomes effective once oil hits $58.00+ dollars a barrel. However, even though last week we were in the high $130's, he's had to wait on Government approval to commence this deal. He says that we have access to enough shale to run the US for 100+ years and that they may well indeed be a new, large scale, source of oil in the US.

Lets face it, people are accustomed to running and doing as they please, 99% of the population would not loose a wink of sleep knowing that they are leading contributing factors of the current situation.

Just my $.02

Best,


PerryC