Nickname: Kratz

Review: Well, ya know what? It doesn't matter how much us lay-people (who don't have the scientific knowledge or proof to back any of the above arguments) fight over the ethanol v. gasoline debate. In 60-100 years when gasoline disapears from the face of the planet, we (some of us younger folk anyway) will all be royaly boned. So if you like the alternative fuel idea or not, it doesn't matter, eventually we will need another fuel.

Date reviewed: May 1, 2006 5:03 AM

Nickname: cubsfan

Review: I can't believe it. No one mentioned our tariffs/quotas on sugar as a cause to high ethanol costs. US sugar protection policies make sugar prices 2 to 2.5 times higher than world prices. Ethanol made from sugar cane yields roughly 8 times more energy than it takes to produce...when corn is used that ratio is roughly 1:1. The way to make ethanol economical is to stop the US sugar price support loan program and tariff-rate quota system. Google those terms and see the 1.9 billion that US sugar policies cost US consumers. Ethanol is the answer...sugar cane is the way to go. The sugar lobby is what costs money...not ethanol. Please do a little research before slamming everyone under the sun for high oil prices. I am a high school student in South Carolina...if I can the real problems...everyone can

Date reviewed: Apr 30, 2006 12:35 AM

Nickname: logic

Review: Google for "Peak Oil." Skim any 2 or 3 hits on the topic. Now you know why gas prices are getting higher.

Date reviewed: Apr 13, 2006 7:18 PM

Nickname: MAXISH

Review: Why are we going to the ends of the earth to produce alternative fuels rather than forcing our automakers (who by the way have all the know-how and technology in the world) to produce economic automobiles? Answer: Washington loves Detroit.

Date reviewed: Apr 10, 2006 9:27 PM

Nickname: Sense

Review: @purr: I think you misunderstand the fuel economy point. MTBE, gasoline, and ethanol, all contain a certain amount of BTUs of energy that can be released to power your auto. ETOH doesn't make your car use more gasoline. MBTE doesn't make your car use less gasoline. It's simply that MTBE has more BTUS than gasoline, which has more BTUs than ETOH, and it's the BTUS that make your car go. So if your car gets 100 mpg of gasoline, it will get about 75 mpg on pure ETOH, or if you're burning 10% ETOH, you'll travel 90 miles per 9/10 gallon of gas, plus 7.5 miles on the remaining 1/10 gallon of ETOH. So, yeah, 97.5 mpg instead of 100 mpg, but less of that is gasoline.

Date reviewed: Apr 4, 2006 3:33 PM

Nickname: Director

Review: The ethanol industry would like us to believe that ethanol will be required by law to be added to gasoline as an oxygenate well into the future. Oxygenates will only be required by law until May 2006. According to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the sections of the Clean Air Act that currently require an oxygenate (currently ethanol or MTBE) to be added to gasoline will change on about May 5, 2006, and then ethanol will no longer be required as an oxygenate. You can read about the requirement for a permeability study to be done on ethanol effects on elastomeric materials (rubber and plastic parts) on our website at: www.C4aQE.org Also some other countries trying to export their sugar cane ethanol to the U.S. are Belize, Costa Rica, Haiti, Jamaica, and El Salvador.

Date reviewed: Apr 3, 2006 3:35 PM

Nickname: hellcat

Review: Do the math, our government gets tax dollars from pulling oil out of the ground, then more tax dollars when it is refined, then more tax dollars when it is shipped to the retailer, then more tax dollars when it is sold to you at the pump. Not to mention the enormous tax dollars recieved from each and every individual's yearly taxable income that is involved with the oil industry. So get with the program, there will be no electric cars, no hydrogen powered vehicles, no economy driven anything. And we will continue to get into wars in the Middle East so that we can blow up more refineries in those countries thereby allowing the oil companies to gouge Joe Blow in the states therby increasing the amount of tax revenues again. Think our government and big oil do not work hand in hand, think again. CAT

Date reviewed: Apr 1, 2006 4:04 AM

Nickname: BIGjim

Review: Check out VRDM, they have a new system to make the ethanol much more efficiently.

Date reviewed: Mar 31, 2006 8:02 PM

Nickname: BottomsUP

Review: I agree with Buddy, to have energy needs compete with food supply needs is ludicrous and will only exacerbate famine and death in the third world and eventually, it will hit major world power food supplies. This has to stop now and if we continue a petroleum based energy source we just have to pay the price, but bio-fuel supplements are not the answer. Solar, wind, and yes water power are the smart choices.

Date reviewed: Mar 31, 2006 5:26 PM

Nickname: Buddy

Review: Ethanol canibalizes the land, and needs large amounts of petroleum-based pesticides and natural gas-based fertilizers. Only through government subsidizing can ethanol work, and even then it will still continue to eat up valuable farmland needed for food. Ethanol is not the right choice for America's future. Wind and solar are, along with clean burning coal and a little oil. But who will listen?

Date reviewed: Mar 30, 2006 8:43 PM