all 14 comments

[–]SoCo 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (9 children)

Diluting the gasoline to make its Mpg lower and destroy vehicles faster....a very short term plan.

[–]iamonlyoneman[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

faster

Literally every car in >20 years has been designed to handle it though?

[–]SoCo 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

They are designed to handle a certain level of it and it still wears parts faster. It is much much worse on Mpg and when you consider production, it's like sticking a coal power plant worth of carbon in your tank.

[–]sampleusername 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Ethanol doesn't wear parts faster, it actually reduces knock and dissolves the fuel deposits left behind by gasoline. It's the simplest fuel you can make since it can be distilled from any wine, beer, or spirit, and occurs naturally in all sorts of rotting plant matter. Prohibition couldn't stop the brewing of alcohol as it was simply too easy and accessible to everyone, so the government decided to place heavy restrictions on distilling instead, which put an end to making ethanol fuel at home. Of course this wasn't really an issue to most consumers at the time since gasoline was considerably cheaper and more available anyway.

Today nearly all cars with fuel injection can safely run ethanol blends up to E99 without replacing any lines or seals. The only difference between a regular car and a Flex Fuel car is that the Flex Fuel has additional injector mappings that activate when the O2 sensor detects running lean, so that it injects more fuel as required for these higher octane blends. Your car already adjusts the fuel trim to account for when gas stations change up the octane levels during summer and winter, you just need to add the mappings for blends up to 105 octane.

In any case, ethanol is locally produced in the U. S. of A., and unlike heavy crude it doesn't need to travel across the ocean before reaching your tank. Gasoline and diesel are going up in price primarily because most of our refineries are not built for the light crude that comes out of the Permian basin. There is no such problem with distilling ethanol, we have plenty of equipment and can easily convert existing breweries to meet the need.

Have a nice day.

[–]SoCo 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Sure, but it still wears your engine faster, has atrocious Mpg, and the production of vast fields of corn, machinery to distill it and infrastructure to support that, produce more carbon output that oil/gas.

It is just a trick of watering down gas, except it isn't simply water, it depletes our food supply, releases tons of extra carbon in its production and wears vehicle engines faster.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Yeah, the cars can run it. Overall it decreases fuel efficiency and increases pollution though. Just basically paying more for watered down gas. Except ethanol, not water.

[–]sampleusername 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

How does ethanol increase pollution? With gasoline and diesel, you have to burn a ton of diesel transporting the heavy crude from overseas, then refine it, and then burn more diesel to transport the finished product to the gas station. Ethanol can be produced anywhere and only needs to travel from the farm to the distillery to the pump, a much shorter distance.

If you want to talk about the environment, you need to consider all the energy it takes to get the fuel to the gas station in the first place. Focusing solely on tailpipe emissions is the same sort of bogus logic that is presented when EV proponents want to brag about how green they are, completely glossing over all the energy spent in mining and building the cars.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

How does ethanol increase pollution?

It's because of the reduced efficiency.

Think of it like this, you need X energy to do W(hatever Bullshit). You add C(rap) to your F(uel) and then you're wasting F(uckall) to do W that you originally only needed X for.

[–]sampleusername 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Reduced efficiency compared to what? High octane means faster acceleration and less time in high RPMs, and more time spent in cruising or idle RPMs. And, more importantly, why would that matter if the gas prices fall in response to blending more ethanol? The problem we are aiming to solve is making the energy cost lower, so how does it make sense to keep shipping in heavy crude from overseas at a time when we cannot produce it domestically? Gasoline and diesel are non renewable resources, but ethanol literally grows out of the ground. Arguments around energy density might make sense if gasoline were available in excess, but that is no longer the case.

How do you propose we solve the problem of high fuel costs when the primary source of heavy crude is Saudi or Russian? Are you going to pay to renovate the refineries, or would it be more prudent to just ferment a bunch of corn that grows naturally across the Midwest anyway? Chances are that the White House has already weighed the options, and chosen the most economically feasible option. Presuming that you know better than the Biden administration is quite the leap of faith, given that they have all of the information, and you have only your personal anecdotes and hearsay from social media.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Looks like it's the land use aspect and not the fuel efficiency as I had thought.

How do you propose we solve the problem of high fuel costs when the primary source of heavy crude is Saudi or Russian?

That one is really easy, we have the domestic production capacity to drive that down if we wanted to.

Gasoline and diesel are non renewable resources

Sure, but we have at least a hundred years of proven reserves left. There's a ton of oil in the ground that's just not profitable to get currently also. They won't run out in my lifetime.

[–]TarBaby 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Higher gas prices. Let's go Brandon!

[–]package 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Some of it might be malice but the more people from his admin talk to the press it’s clear many of them legitimately do not have the knowledge or skills required by their positions

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

[–]IkeConn 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Doesn't anyone in the Biden White House think this shit through?