The Case against Ethanol at the Gas Pump…

May 23, 2010 at 3:04pm

The Case against Ethanol…next time you fill up your gas tank and see the notice that up to 10% is Ethanol consider the following:

1) The production of Ethanol is harmful to the environment

2) Starving the world’s poor through higher food prices

3) Energy loser: It takes about 1.3 gallons of oil to produce one gallon of ethanol

4) When all of the federal subsidies are added in, the actual cost to taxpayers of ethanol-blended gasoline was $5.20 per gallon.

5) Three scientists from the University of Texas at Austin published a report on the deleterious effects that increased biofuels production will have on water quality, and therefore on energy consumption.

6) Corn ethanol production increases the use of fertilizer and increases erosion

7) By increasing biofuels production, particularly from corn ethanol, the US will increase the amount of energy needed to treat its drinking water because of increased nitrate concentrations in surface and ground water supplies.

8) An analysis from Purdue University reinforced the EPA’s original stance: that corn-based ethanol is unlikely to reduce global greenhouse gases. It found that substituting ethanol for gasoline would double greenhouse gas emissions by changing land use in 18 regions of the world.

9) The fuel economy of the Tahoe dropped 27 percent when running on E85 compared with gasoline, from an already low 14 mpg overall to 10 mpg (rounded to the nearest mpg). This is the lowest fuel mileage we’ve gotten from any vehicle in recent years.

10) When we calculated the Tahoe’s driving range, we found that it decreased to about 300 miles on a full tank of E85 compared with about 440 on gasoline. So you have to fill up more often with E85.

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