To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate
Ethanol in gasoline is bad for the economy and ecology.
Fact check:
1 gallon of Ethanol = 80,184.2448 kilojoules
1 gallon of Gas = 122,481.434 kilojoules
That's a difference of 42,297.1892 kilojoules.
Simple physics, your car gets worse mileage with ethanol every time.
Here is what the EPA is not telling you:
Your car is supposed to burn ethanol like gas, but much less efficiently, however that assertion does not add up. Typically you will see between a 10% to up to 20% drop in mpg using ethanol with a 10% blend. Simple math says that if you drop 10% of your MPG by adding 10% ethanol, you are not burning the ethanol. A bigger drop would indicate that ethanol is actually preventing your car from burning the gas.
Common sense: since ethanol costs about as much as gas, and people are going to drive the same distance weather or not the gas has ethanol in it, who profits from this? Is the air any cleaner? No. It can't be cleaner because the amount of fuel needed per mile goes up, not down.
Are gas prices higher? Let's examine that for a moment. Gas must be refined, then blended, now, if the blend includes ethanol, that's an additive that must, by nature, be added to the total cost. Ethanol = higher gas prices.
Can cars run on ethanol directly? Yes, however ethanol costs about the same as gas per gallon and your fuel efficiency would suffer. 10 gallons may get you 200 miles instead of 500.
What about emissions? Yes, ethanol will burn cleaner than gas, fewer emissions, but WAIT! Not exactly! You see, ethanol is a bio-fuel and is grown, what the EPA means by fewer emissions, is that in the act of growing corn kelp or whatever they use, the plants take in some carbon dioxide and expel some oxygen. The actual burning of ethanol produces emissions just as dangerous for the environment as gas!
But what if all cars were converted to ethanol and we just used locally grown ethanol sources, and more of them, wouldn't that reduce fuel prices? The answer is a surprising NO! It would raise fuel costs, as ethanol can not be moved through a pipeline as it picks up contaminants really well. In fact, ethanol can be watered down more easily than gas. Gas floats on water, like oil. Ethanol absorbs water. Imagine fuel pumps being checked frequently for just how dilute the ethanol is, imagine how much damage to your engine just one fill up at a pump where some dirty underhanded company is trying to make more profit by diluting the ethanol. Ethanol would cost more in production as well, as we can't grow enough corn and other sources to feed our fuel needs. Right now, tax payer subsides for growing corn for ethanol purposes have expired. We already produce more than enough corn in this country, and up until this year, we, tax payers, have paid to let that corn sit and rot in silos. Now corn prices will shoot up, and here in NC we have seen a huge jump in gas prices this year so far. Nationally the price has jumped $0.10 this month. Last year at this time, the national average at this time was $3.08. This year, $3.35. Locally I see prices of $3.49 to $3.52 today.
What about extracting oil from local sources to reduce dependency on the foreign oil? Well, let's look at that for a moment. Fracking for oil is dangerous, and costly, so that won't be done. Off shore oil drilling costs more and is very dangerous, and when there is a leak under water, much damage is done before a repair can be attempted. So, traditional methods of drilling are the best bet.
Who is profiting from this? In 2011 the large oil companies had record profits while the trucking industry lost jobs and made much less profit. In fact, the oil companies made profits in the billions. $38 billion in 2011. Exxon, for example, is a US company that turned a $10 billion dollar profit in 2011. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if an American company profits, don't we all get a bump in our pay? Oh yes, this was disproven by the old trickle down theory that was mythbusted by Reagan back in the 80s. Yet here we stand with republicans trying to convince us that business must profit for our over all health and well being.
So, we come to the inevitable conclusion that the EPA is working for big oil, increasing the price of production of gas, and decreasing MPG, and therefor harming the environment.
Let's put a stop to it by removing ethanol from the gasoline.
1 gallon of Ethanol = 80,184.2448 kilojoules
1 gallon of Gas = 122,481.434 kilojoules
That's a difference of 42,297.1892 kilojoules.
Simple physics, your car gets worse mileage with ethanol every time.
Here is what the EPA is not telling you:
Your car is supposed to burn ethanol like gas, but much less efficiently, however that assertion does not add up. Typically you will see between a 10% to up to 20% drop in mpg using ethanol with a 10% blend. Simple math says that if you drop 10% of your MPG by adding 10% ethanol, you are not burning the ethanol. A bigger drop would indicate that ethanol is actually preventing your car from burning the gas.
Common sense: since ethanol costs about as much as gas, and people are going to drive the same distance weather or not the gas has ethanol in it, who profits from this? Is the air any cleaner? No. It can't be cleaner because the amount of fuel needed per mile goes up, not down.
Are gas prices higher? Let's examine that for a moment. Gas must be refined, then blended, now, if the blend includes ethanol, that's an additive that must, by nature, be added to the total cost. Ethanol = higher gas prices.
Can cars run on ethanol directly? Yes, however ethanol costs about the same as gas per gallon and your fuel efficiency would suffer. 10 gallons may get you 200 miles instead of 500.
What about emissions? Yes, ethanol will burn cleaner than gas, fewer emissions, but WAIT! Not exactly! You see, ethanol is a bio-fuel and is grown, what the EPA means by fewer emissions, is that in the act of growing corn kelp or whatever they use, the plants take in some carbon dioxide and expel some oxygen. The actual burning of ethanol produces emissions just as dangerous for the environment as gas!
But what if all cars were converted to ethanol and we just used locally grown ethanol sources, and more of them, wouldn't that reduce fuel prices? The answer is a surprising NO! It would raise fuel costs, as ethanol can not be moved through a pipeline as it picks up contaminants really well. In fact, ethanol can be watered down more easily than gas. Gas floats on water, like oil. Ethanol absorbs water. Imagine fuel pumps being checked frequently for just how dilute the ethanol is, imagine how much damage to your engine just one fill up at a pump where some dirty underhanded company is trying to make more profit by diluting the ethanol. Ethanol would cost more in production as well, as we can't grow enough corn and other sources to feed our fuel needs. Right now, tax payer subsides for growing corn for ethanol purposes have expired. We already produce more than enough corn in this country, and up until this year, we, tax payers, have paid to let that corn sit and rot in silos. Now corn prices will shoot up, and here in NC we have seen a huge jump in gas prices this year so far. Nationally the price has jumped $0.10 this month. Last year at this time, the national average at this time was $3.08. This year, $3.35. Locally I see prices of $3.49 to $3.52 today.
What about extracting oil from local sources to reduce dependency on the foreign oil? Well, let's look at that for a moment. Fracking for oil is dangerous, and costly, so that won't be done. Off shore oil drilling costs more and is very dangerous, and when there is a leak under water, much damage is done before a repair can be attempted. So, traditional methods of drilling are the best bet.
Who is profiting from this? In 2011 the large oil companies had record profits while the trucking industry lost jobs and made much less profit. In fact, the oil companies made profits in the billions. $38 billion in 2011. Exxon, for example, is a US company that turned a $10 billion dollar profit in 2011. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if an American company profits, don't we all get a bump in our pay? Oh yes, this was disproven by the old trickle down theory that was mythbusted by Reagan back in the 80s. Yet here we stand with republicans trying to convince us that business must profit for our over all health and well being.
So, we come to the inevitable conclusion that the EPA is working for big oil, increasing the price of production of gas, and decreasing MPG, and therefor harming the environment.
Let's put a stop to it by removing ethanol from the gasoline.
Why is this important?
Ethanol added to gas has not lead to a cleaner future, instead it has lead to a higher profit for oil companies. When the EPA forced gas companies to add ethanol, the gas you purchase has reduced your MPG. The EPA's theory that adding ethanol will reduce driving by 10% due to higher prices has not worked. Instead, it has lead to record profits for oil companies because people drive the same distance as before, it just costs 10% more.