Top things a Romney administration could do for economy without spending a lot of tax money

10/20/2012 | Vince Ferrer

[Kickass Conservative]

Self detonating Democrats?

[usconservative]

In what way are you saying ethanol causes more fuel comsumption?

Very simple: It takes more GASOLINE w/Ethanol to go 100 miles than it does PURE GASOLINE.

I'll give you a very simple example: My 2003 GMC Envoy Denali get 22.5mpg on the highway using Gasoline w/10% ethanol. The same vehicle gets 25.5mpg on the highway using 100% gasoline w/NO ethanol.

So YES using Ethanol DOES IN FACT cause MORE fuel to be consumed.

Do you work for an ethanol producer by any chance? You seem to want to talk about ANYTHING but MPG, which was my main point.

[Vince Ferrer]

I don't know why you wrote that I am avoiding MPG, when I have already discussed it and provided links. Here is another example, from the same website. 2012 Ford Escape AWD FFV

Model vehicle: 2012 Ford Escape AWD FFV

	Regular Gas	E85
Combined	20	14
Fuel Economics
Cost to drive 25 miles	$4.69	$5.61
Fuel to drive 25 miles	1.25 gal	1.79 gal
Cost to fill the tank	$59.06	$49.46
Miles on a tank	315	221

Notice the line "Fuel to drive 25 miles". In the case of regular gas, which is now E10, and I will try to adjust for that, we would use 1.125 gallons of gas, of which .5 gallons would be imported, and .125 gallons of ethanol. In the case of E85, it would use .27 gallons of gasoline, and 1.52 gallons of ethanol.

So, yes, the gasoline usage would go down by using E85, 1.125 - .27 = .855 gallons of gasoline saved per 25 miles.

The "Cost to drive 25 miles" is just as important. Right now, it costs more to drive on E85, but this is using corn. If we could lower the price of ethanol by 25% by using coal, here is what the economics might look like, although it is difficult to estimate.

$5.61 * .85 = $4.7685 This is just a very rough estimate of the price of the ethanol content of E85, but it assumes gasoline and ethanol are equally priced. If the cost of ethanol dropped 25% by using coal instead of corn, that portion of the E85 price would drop to $3.58. Add back the gasoline and get a total of $4.42, or slightly less than gasoline ($4.69).

So, by my calculations, we could replace imported oil, be energy independent, provide Americans jobs, and we could keep the price of fuel about the same by changing the law to allow ethanol from any source, not just corn. Corn would be entirely replaced, and we could export it.

[1010RD]

Good thread, but since we’re not electing a king how about working with Congress to eliminate the law making authority of the Executive Branch Departments?