[solarguy]

So, yes. If we make ethanol (very efficiently) from a feedstock that is not corn, and grows on marginal land (efficiently) and it's used fairly locally (for efficiency in the distribution system), and burned in a car that is purpose designed for it, for maximal efficiency, ethanol can play a small role in the future solution.

It will not, under any imaginable circumstance, just allow us to carry on with business as usual in big fat inefficient vehicles. Not that anyone in this conversation is suggesting or advocating this.

Part of my reason for being suspicious about pro-ethanol arguments, is that so many necessary pieces of the puzzle are just not there yet. Further, GM and Ford used (and are still using) Flex fuel vehicles to get a big fat juicy pass from CAFE regs, so they could just keep right on building big fat inefficient Suburbans while getting green-washed. They could just use an arbitrarily and suspiciously high FE number for every flex fuel Suburban they sold to calculate their CAFE numbers. Similarly, I am suspicious of the 1.5:1 number from the Dept of Ag people. They are not an unbiased and independent 3rd party. I will have to dig a bit deeper into how they do the math and account for all the external issues.


Smart ethanol + 57 other strategies, OK, now we have a chance.

When the average car for sale in the US gets ~50 mpg, and the average american consciously cuts the number of miles driven by 50%, we're in the game.

Finest regards,

troy