The Real Cost of Ethanol

In this post I would like to go more in depth regarding ethanol. One thing I left out in my first post on the topic, which I would just like to make known, is that ethanol (E85) is s fuel that is created from 85% corn and 15% other gasolines of varying octanes. Anyways, congress is anxious to do anything about the high cost of gasoline, at the taxpayers expense. What congress has done is give the agribusiness a mandate they can't refuse. Corn ethanol production must rise from 4 billion gallons in 2006 to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012. How are they going to do this? Well, I'm glad you asked. The answer is subsidies. The current ethanol subsidy is a flat 51 cents per gallon of E85 paid to the agent that blends ethanol with gasoline (usually an oil company).

Let's look at some other reasons why E85 is a ridiculous idea. It costs money to store, transport, and blend ethanol with gasoline. Ethanol absorbs water. Since water is corrosive to pipeline components, it must be transported by tanker to a distribution point where it is blended with gasoline and readied for the pump. That's expensive transportation. The gasoline that is blended with ethanol isn't the same gas you pump into your car. It has to be able to blend with the E85, and this type of gasoline is more expensive than regular gas. Ethanol is lost through contamination and evaporation during the blending process. Ethanol that has been contaminated by water degrades the efficiency of combustion. E85 ethanol is corrosive to the seals and fuel systems in most existing engines and cannot be dispensed through regular gas pumps. And the icing on the cake, ethanol has about 25% less energy per gallon than regular gasoline.

Believe me when I say that I am all for alternative energy that lowers the price of gasoline and decreases our dependability as a nation on foreign oil. But ethanol is not the solution. I'll tell you what ethanol is. The public is gradually catching on to the energy crisis her and they are starting to demand action. The problem, which I have spoken of before, is that the U.S has started mitigating WAY too late. The problem again is public ignorance. They general consensus was smart enough to identify the problem, but they are still naive to the truth about ethanol. They love to hear the talking heads on CNN and politicians pump up ethanol. So, now you've read this post, and I hope you have read my previous post on ethanol. I would like to sum this scenario up with one question. Do you think that Rudy Jiuliani, Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama will get elected as the next president of the U.S. if they don't sell to the nation how many ethanol plants they are going to build and how important E85 is to the future of the U.S.? No way. I'm always quick to rag on politicians and maybe they could inform the public on the truth of E85 if they actually know (which I'm not confident that they do). The problem here is the general public. Politicians are going to give them what they want if they wish to be elected/reelected. As long as the U.S. citizen wants ethanol, we're going to give it to them, at the high cost of tax dollars.