More ethanol fuel fun and games...
Wanna read about a "successful" gas station launch of Ethanol Fuel?
The story is at The Country Today which uses frames stupidly.
Here is the --
main page.
Here is the --
story I'm talking about.
I'm going to put my comments inline with the story -- a
Fisking if you wish.
E85 fuels new station
Wisconsin's first ethanol fueling station north of Milwaukee opened May 26, receiving a steady supply of customers.
People were lined up all day to buy E85 blend - offered for 85 cents during the grand opening of the station at Highways 21 and 49 in Waushara County.
Automotive fuel at 85 cents/gallon and you wonder why people are lining up?
"This is a fabulous response," said Paul Olsen, president of Utica Energy.
No, it shows that people aren't dummies.
Renew E85 is a blend of 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent ethanol. The station also sells a blend of 10 percent ethanol.
"Renew E85 is one of the ways we can reduce dependence on foreign oil," Mr. Olsen said in a statement. "Ethanol is a renewable resource and is proven to maintain automobile performance and decrease environmental pollution."
"reduce dependence on foreign oil"? -- explain how this is done when any high-school science student can tell you that it takes more energy to produce Ethanol than can be recovered by its combustion. Where do we get that energy to produce the Ethanol -- moonbeams?
As for "renewable resource" -- explain please. Explain also "maintain automobile performance" when it has been shown time and time again that an internal combustion engine gets worse gas mileage on Ethanol than with Gasoline.
Gasoline carries an energy capacity of 9,000 Watt Hours per Liter.
Ethanol carries an energy capacity of 6,100 Watt Hours per Liter.
Utica Energy began manufacturing ethanol at its plant southwest of Oshkosh in 2003. It produces about 50 million gallons of ethanol per year.
Oh wait -- that's right -- Paul Olsen (the guy who said all that) runs the company that is making this snake oil. Never mind then...
E85 can be used by cars and trucks designated as flexible-fuel vehicles. Some examples are many models of Ford Taurus, Dodge Cargo minivans, Mercury Sables and larger trucks such as a Ford Explorer and Chevrolet Silverado.
This I did not know -- you have to use a special car. Probably a late-model car so the other 95% of the cars on the road cannot fill up at the pumps without possibly damaging their vehicles.
"When we built the ethanol plant we promised that we would sell ethanol-based fuel," Mr. Olsen said. "People have been waiting for it."
Like duhhh...
E85 sells for $1.55 a gallon because licensed ethanol blenders such as Utica Energy receive a federal tax credit of 51 cents per gallon for renewable fuel.
So our tax dollars are funding this project and enabling Mr. Olsen to make a lot of money.
"From the corn growers' point of view, we are just thrilled that these ethanol plants are buying as much corn as they are," said Bob Olsen, executive director of the Wisconsin Corn Promotion Board. "Certainly the price of ethanol is cheap compared to gasoline."
He said ethanol plants' demand adds about 10 to 15 cents per bushel of corn sold by farmers.
Here we get to the heart of the matter. Corn already has a major set of uses in our lives. Food products, high-fructose corn syrup in soft drinks, animal feed, beer; Ethanol production is a minor part of Corn's use and this one industry is raising the overall price of Corn 10 to 15 cents/ bushel. Considering that Corn has been selling recently for about $2.00 to $2.30/bu, this is a significant impact that will raise the overall prices to the consumers for tortillas, bread, corn products, soft drinks, adhesives, edible oil, batteries, paint, medicines, meats and beer.
All to feed an artificially subsidized energy sink (more overall energy to produce than it yields).
"Farmers don't have to haul corn to market as far," he said. "A lot of corn in the past was hauled out of state to market."
BZZZTTT!!! -- transportation costs are covered by the buyer.
At 10 cents more per bushel, state corn growers are capitalizing at about $35 million more in income per year, Mr. Olsen said.
Their gain -- good for them but it is also our loss with higher prices for everything else that uses Corn. Plus, the money that is used to fuel this artificial "alternative" comes from our Federal Income Tax so we are paying for the very thing that is causing the higher prices.
Posted by DaveH at June 2, 2005 11:36 PM