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Good post. I just don't get why we're ignoring E85.
Here we have the means to make ethanol out of, well, waste, and yet there are just a piddly few gas stations providing it and a handful of cars optimized to run on it. Imagine how this would help farmers out! They would not need to be subsidized by the govt anymore, they would have no trouble selling their crops to be turned into Ethanol, and we would not have to rely on crazy Iranians and OPEC.
My next car will be one that can run on E85, assuming a gas station near me offers the stuff. What will it take -- a mass demonstration in Washington?
posted by
JanesOpinion
on April 20, 2006 at 3:04 PM
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Jack...
A quote from the April Discover Magazine, "Anything Into Oil" page 50, Brian Appel, chairman and CEO of Chaging World Technologies states, "All oil, even fossil-fuel oil, gets government subsidies in the form of tax breaks and other incentives." He says, citing a 1998 study by the International Center for Technology Assessment showing that unsubsidized conventional gasoline would cost consumers $15 a gallon. Before they got a $1 a gallon subisidy in 2005, CWT had the only oil in the world that didn't get a subsidy.
posted by
food4thought
on April 15, 2006 at 2:31 PM
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Americans are lazy and stupid when it comes to things like this-
And You are correct...the company will probably go to Europe, make billions and sell its products back to us at inflated prices. And we'll pay them.
I've been saying for 10 years that we shouldn't be buying or driving gas guzzlers...of course, I have the common sense to see the writing on the wall, which is apparently more difficult to read than I first thought...lol!
posted by
Passionflower
on April 15, 2006 at 7:28 AM
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food4,
Also, as far as the
Evil Petro Corps being subsidized by the
Evil Government, I'm not buying that without some concrete evidence. It smacks a bit too much of the
Sinister Plot frame of mind. As far as I'm concerned, people who accept the
Sinister Plot way of thinking border on, at times even cross over to, a state of mental illness. I suspect that many who think that way even have theories of Satanic involvement.
posted by
Jack_Flash
on April 15, 2006 at 12:41 AM
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food4,
I can't disagree with you on that point, but I think that the public needs to stop anthropomorphizing corporations. They are not sentient beings with thoughts of their own. They are run by groups of people whose motivation is totally of self-interest. Exxon has no voice with which to speak; the corporate management takes care of that with an eye to their own bank accounts. That makes them pretty much a bunch of average people working in average ways.
The Evil Corporation is not a being, it is an organization run by people who invariably blame ''that other thing'' for any problems that come up.
posted by
Jack_Flash
on April 15, 2006 at 12:24 AM
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Jack...
It could also be the petro companies don't want to change, no do they want "real" competition.. They are also subsidized by the government, surprised?
posted by
food4thought
on April 15, 2006 at 12:05 AM
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food4,
When someone comes up with a practical alternative for petroleum that can be in the price range of petroleum there will be customers. As much as anyone may dream of the social conscience and caring nature of mankind, at the individual level it simply does not exist.
All of the problems of civilization are the other guy's fault. ''I'm socially responsible; I do everything I can to further the interests of humanity. It's those rednecks, trailer trash, and SUV drivers that are causing all of this, not innocent little me. I'm more perfect than that. Why isn't everyone else?''
Look around you. Listen to what is being said. Every single problem that we have is ''that guy's fault.'' As long as that is the general attitude of mankind, we are going to live with social chaos.
posted by
Jack_Flash
on April 14, 2006 at 11:56 PM
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