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Howdy George,
Older cars certainly have a problem with ethanol. I believe the mechanical and chemical problems associated with ethanol can be engineered out or around so that even a '66 122S can run on the stuff.
But the source of the ethanol is stupid: corn. Let's see, take a food and fodder and turn it into alcohol at a net loss of energy. Who is responsible for that brilliant idea? The EPA, that's who. Once they were (finally) convinced that MTBE was polluting every waterway in the country and were forced to stop using it, they had to come up with another oxygenate. With the growing "green" movement blessing the idea, the decision was taken to use ethanol to oxygenate gasoline. Corn to the rescue.
I've got a better idea. Let's use hemp. It is a weed. It will grow pretty much anywhere on its own. In fact, farmers in the Midwest have to spend money to kill it where it volunteers. Plant it and pull it. It doesn't get any easier than that. No fertilizers, no cultivation, no energy sink. The oils can be used to make biodiesel. The fibers can be fermented to make ethanol. Alcohol doesn't care what plant you ferment to make it. The remainders can be used to make fertilizers and biodegradeable plastics. It is damned near a perfect solution.
The hard part would be getting past the well-meaning do-gooders who think that hemp is evil. Do you know where they got that idea? From William Randolph Hearst and the Dupont family. Hurst had financial interest in timber pulp production for his newspapers. He demonized the hemp plant as the source of marijuana (which is actually another genus of the species) in his papers. The Duponts had just patented Nylon and needed a ready market for the manmade fiber. With influencial friends in high places, they applied money and pressure to congress and soon enough the cultivation of hemp was outlawed.
It is time to start using our heads and our natural resources properly. Stop the use of food and fodder crops for fuel. Weeds are a much more intelligent choice.
My two cents.
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Mr. Shannon DeWolfe -- I've taken to using mister because my name misleads folks on the WWW. I am a 52 year old fat man.
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