Posted on 07/17/2007 8:14:58 AM PDT by Graybeard58
Sometimes, when a patient has an imaginary illness, the doctor will prescribe harmless pills called placebos. Somehow, they work: The patient thinks the illness is being treated, and the symptoms diminish or go away.
In 2005, California took a $17 million placebo for global warming. Specifically, the state bought a fleet of 1,138 Chevrolet Impalas and Silverado trucks designed to run on E-85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.
Trouble is, California has no filling stations that sell E-85. No such stations were scheduled to open until 2009. In the interim, according to the San Jose Mercury News, the "flex-fuel" vehicles traveled a collective 10 million miles and burned more than 413,202 gallons of ordinary gasoline.
It gets even sillier. The Impalas replaced smaller, more fuel-efficient Ford Focuses so that, in the words of the Mercury News, "the flex-fuel vehicles are actually chugging out more smog and greenhouse gases than many vehicles in the state's old fleet — as much as 2,000 tons annually."
On orders from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state's General Services Department has called for bids to open an ethanol station a few blocks from the state capitol. However, the corn needed for California refineries to make ethanol has to be hauled in from the Midwest, most of it on diesel-powered trains or trucks, further negating any clean-air benefit.
Said Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California Energy Institute: "This is about California politicians wanting to be leaders in alternative energy. They just jump on whatever is sexy."
Thus, there is a bright side to California's E-85 vehicle mess. Even if the state overpaid for the vehicles by 10 percent, and even if the vehicles were 10 percent less fuel efficient, the total cost to the state probably wasn't much more than $5 million. As bogus remedies for imaginary maladies go, California is getting off cheaply.
Just follow the money....
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
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HA!
HA HA!
HA HA HA!
Leave it to moonbats to not think things through. Unintended consequences indeed!
But they FEEL so much better for having done it!
There never WILL be any infrastructure for E85 -- or any other alternative fuel -- until someone takes the first step. Any step that reduces our dependence on Mideast oil is a step in the right direction. I don't care if we have to power our cars with burning currency.
great article... :)
What kind of society burns their food?
In that case go to a GM dealer and buy some of those “Flexfuel” emblems and glue them to your car.
As with these Impalas it won’t do any good but it’ll make people feel better.
Hello CA, I’ll sell WVA to you. Just send me a check to $500,000.00.
1) The corn being used for ethanol is not sweet corn. It is a feed grain, i.e., corn used for animal feed.
2) Once the sugars and starches are extracted from the corn to make ethanol, the proteins are still intact and the residue a highly sought animal feed. In other words, the corn retains its usefulness as a feed grain.
The MPG decrease makes ethanol more expensive that gasoline.
The same society that kills their unborn children.
By the way people normally eat sweet corn not feed corn. And DDG(Dried Distillers Grain) provides an excellent high protein livestock feed supplement.
I heard that the cows don’t eat the de-ethanized feed.
From what I have heard from people who know better than I, ethanol is a net energy sink. It takes more energy to get a gallon of corn ethanol than you get from burning it. In the mean time, you might as well be burning money.
There are a number of things that the United States can do to improve our "energy independence". More refineries, more offshore drilling. etc. However, oil is (and will continue to be) a global commodity. IIRC, we get a lot of our our from Mexico and Venzuela; Alaska's oil goes to Japan; Europe gets it from the ME. Even if the U.S. still had "neutral" oil imports, price would be affected by global events.
Liberal politics is all about symbolism and good intentions. Don't let facts or reality ruin the daydream.
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