Oh, and lets not forget the cost of fuel to till the fields, harvest the plants, get them to a refinery, or the fuel consumed by the processing plant to convert the crops into ethanol. It is just like "Silent Spring" or Global Warming--feel good, junk "science" that actually does more harm than good.
Umm... was it a flexfuel vehicle? B/c if not then he shouldn't have been putting ethanol in there in the first place.
10% ethanol is becoming mandatory throughout the country more and more. Florida gas stations have recently been legislated to get their stations on E10 by 2010.
This is about a 10% ethanol blend designed, supposedly, for standard vehicles, no flexfuel capacity needed.
Yeah I was discussing this with the wife and our eldest the other day. We are going nuts trying to find gas stations that dont sell the 10% blend. Fuck I need to switch careers and become a mechanic.
How long does it take to get that bad buildup? I was driving cross-country, and had to get ethanol-laced gas in several states; that was the only gas I could get - my car doesn't like 85 much, and was sure as hell not paying for 93.
I've been scouring for information. It seems that ethanol, in addition to being slightly corrosive is also a better solvent than gasoline. In older cars this means it'll remove scale and other crap from the gas tank and deposit these in the injectors, or at least plug up fuel filters. The corrosion aspect isn't supposed to be a problem in concentrations less than 10%. However Germany has scrapped plans to use it in concentrations more than 5% due to the effect on older cars. As for it causing sludge, that sounds like people that don't maintain their cars looking for something to blame besides themselves. As for valve deposits I've also heard this being symptomatic of running higher octane fuel. I don't think I've heard it being a performance problem. Cities are mandating its use to meet federal emissions standards. Ethanol lowers many pollutants from cars using it even in low concentrations. I'd rather not pump it into my car, but I wouldn't drive out of my way to avoid it.
The push for ethanol has nothing to do with global warming that I'm aware of. It has more to do with reducing oil imports, reducing air pollution (ozone at ground level being the main ingredient), and increasing the price of corn. Burning carbon normally eaten or plowed back into the ground isn't a big GW help. Edit: the ethanol industry is claiming 29% reduction in greenhouse gases over petroleum so I can see why this might be attributed to GW fundies. We fundies would rather drink our ethanol than drive it.
If you want to reduce oil imports, start drilling in Alaska. But of course, the government is too damn stupid to realize that. Thanks to that, and all the idiots who supported this, the price of food is going through the roof.
Eh, no, not necessarily. If you have a 2.7L or 4.7L Chrysler, a VW/Audi 1.8L Turbo, or a 2.2 Camry (which is a great engine), this is a legitimate concern - these engines can sludge even when maintained within normal manufacturing specs. Especially for folks that don't use synthetic oil.
