Mostly because of the cost of the crude oil going into the refinery.
What we pay for in a gallon of:
Posted on 09/13/2013 1:49:26 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
The government mandated blend of ethanol in every gallon of gasoline is a full-fledged disaster and neither Congress, nor the Environmental Protection Agency shows any indication of either repealing or abandoning it.
A recent Wall Street Journal editorial said, “A strong candidate for the most expensive policy blunder of recent years would have to be the mandate to blend corn ethanol and other biofuels into the nation’s gasoline supply. Last month even the Environmental Protection Agency essentially acknowledged that the program is increasingly unworkable and costly to consumers. The EPA just won’t do much to fix it.”
Some future historian will calculate how many trillions this nation wasted when it passed a law in 2007 that was supposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to save the Earth from global warming and to provide a domestic energy source to compete with OPEC oil.
Implicit in that calculation will have to be the millions, if not billions, of automobiles whose engines were ruined by ethanol. Another element of the calculation is the way the cost of food at home and around the world was increased needlessly by requiring approximately 42% of the U.S. corn crop be used for ethanol production. It is more than the amount of corn used to feed livestock and poultry nationwide.
Only an environmentalist would think it was a good idea to burn food as fuel instead of permitting corn to be used as part of the nation’s food chain and for export.
(Excerpt) Read more at canadafreepress.com ...
his nation wasted when it passed a law in 2007
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The ethanol mandate started in 2005.
ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 2005
TITLE XV—ETHANOL AND MOTOR FUELS
Subtitle A—General Provisions
SEC. 1501. RENEWABLE CONTENT OF GASOLINE
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-109publ58/pdf/PLAW-109publ58.pdf
All ethanol does is drive gasoline prices higher, create more pollution when you burn it, and drive mileage down.
Exactly what are you claiming the alcohol does internally to "kill" an engine?
From the stuff I read, the bottleneck isn’t the availability of oil.
It’s the refineries.
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Even with the shutdowns, we refine more fuel in the US than we use ourselves.
We refine about twice as much crude oil as we produce ourselves. We import nearly the same amount of crude oil as we produce domestically.
Refinery Utilization and Capacity
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pnp_unc_dcu_nus_m.htm
Crude Oil Production
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_crd_crpdn_adc_mbblpd_m.htm
U.S. Imports by Country of Origin, Crude Oil
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_epc0_im0_mbblpd_m.htm
It wasn't than long ago that 125 bushel corn was considered exceptional
It costs too much at the pump!
We need a glut of unleaded gasoline, and no "boutique blends".
Reservations have been poor places for a long time. But, by treaty and tradition, they are exempt from a lot of state laws. Hence, some of them have built gambling casinos with varying degrees of success.
The EPA makes it very difficult to build and operate a refinery. This plan makes me suspect that the EPA has less authority in the reservations. If it takes place, I look for it to be widely copied for refineries and other types of industry as well.
Exactly. I’m not a farmer but I do have occasion to rub shoulders with farmers from time to time. The technologies in the field today are amazing, and the stuff in the pipeline is even better. NCGA runs an annual yield contest with competition in several categories. Last year, most of the national winners were over 300 bushels an acre. That was in the face of the worst drought in decades. That much yield potential is already in the plant, and both the genetics and the agronomics are improving rapidly. I’m a layman in such matters, but it’s fun to watch.
A lot of Americans are at a Little House on the Prairie level of understanding of agriculture. Charles Ingalls never imagined field maps capturing soil conditions across multiple variables (moisture, organic content, chemical content) on a ten square meter scale, with seed and fertilizer variable rated across the field. All of this is GPS controlled. The next evolution may be planters capable of planting four or five varieties in the same field: the optimum variety, optimum plant density and planting pattern for each soil type, with chemicals applied with almost surgical precision. And that’s all independent of better genetics, which is also advancing rapidly.
When the auto manufacturers themselves go to the effort to issue warning stickers and owner manual guidance to not use E15 (Ethanol 15%) on the pain of voided warranties (Toyota), I presume that they might know their own engines. This is from AAA on this subject; "The auto industry, though, says E-15 -- as the blend is known -- corrodes pumps, fuel lines and injectors. And manufacturers say they won't cover damages caused by the higher blend."
As for older vehicles, designed and built to non-ethanol standards, the alcohol concentration is a known deteriorating factor for the fuel systems. Perhaps it is excessive to say that E15 is a killer but I would not want the expense of parts replacements!
Ethanol and biofuel mandates have the economic effect of firmly tying the price of grain crops used for food (or used to feed animals used for food) to the world price of energy. This is a grave mistake because future price gyrations in either food or energy would cause markets to react in ways that might substantially change food supplies.
But more important, the entire idea that we must consume food crops as a substitute for oil is just silly and wrong. Why not convert coal to motor vehicle fuel instead of converting field corn? It defies logic.
Mostly because of the cost of the crude oil going into the refinery.
What we pay for in a gallon of:
I have seen some of the stuff, and it makes a Tomahawk missile look simple.
The central government mandating the blending of ethanol is lousy as a matter of policy, just as is their mandate of any other product. But ethanol doesn’t not burn hotter than gasoline. If you engine was running hotter, your timing was off.
Yep, and snowmobiles, chainsaw, weedwhacker, mini-tiller, etc.
My ‘95 Nissan Maxima had to have all its fuel injectors replaced after 3 years. The mechanic told me they were corroded by ethanol use. I still drive it today with the replacement injectors and it runs like a dream. And I haven’t used ethanol since they were replaced.
There is/was an Alcohol/ethanol group on Yahoo which contained a lot of useful information for individuals wanting to produce their own fuel but whoa be to anyone who pointed out the inefficiencies (which an open debate might address) or to mention FOX news.
It was exactly like posting some anti-communist message on the DU.
Instant deletion of your post should you defend FOX or point out that without political interference ethanol is not the way to go at this point in time as it is not economically viable without political distortion of the energy and costs required to produce it..
If however, they can come up with an enzyme to allow the use of Kudzu, they would have a twofer.
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