Who’s making what?
Paul Ritchie posted in News on March 21st, 2006
As much as I hated the idea of going to this particular website, being generally ill-disposed toward hyperbole and that untelligible language of the people who write ‘reports’, I’ve ventured into the EIA DOE website - and even made it out relatively unscathed. Woo!
The very first head scratch I got from being in there was this:
“The ability to produce ethanol from low-cost biomass will be key to making it competitive as a gasoline additive.” (Source: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/analysispaper/biomass.html)
*Sigh*
The L.A. Times had a slightly more hopeful leader today, with a lovely ironic twist which emphasises beautifully what I said Saturday, though I may have to write rude emails to them about all the wretched pop-up advertising on that site.
“Refiners are rushing to switch to ethanol because of what they see as a growing risk of lawsuits over the use of MTBE” (Source:http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas21mar21,1,3904465.story?coll=la-headlines-business)
Comes down to that all important bottom line again.
MTBE, for those who are unaware, is a fuel additive whose full name is methyl tertiary butyl ether but it pollutes groundwater and makes Erin Brokovich froth at the mouth.
If all this sounds lefty-pinko-commie-ever-so-slightly-tree-hugging-anti-establishment, think again. It’s called forward thinking. As soon as an ethanol manufacturer and a vehicle manufacturer start putting their heads together, the business opportunities have the potential to make Halliburton collectively shit itself.
And whose going to go to war over a lousy cornfield in the middle of a desert? Now, about those bottom lines…
Here’s what the Renewable Fuels Association homepage has to say on the subject…
Ethanol is sold nationwide as a high-octane fuel that delivers improved vehicle performance while reducing emissions and improving air quality. By reducing fuel imports, ethanol reduces our nation’s trade imbalance, improves our energy security, creates American jobs and provides value-added markets for American agriculture. Source: http://www.ethanolrfa.org/
But I’m not sleeping on the job here at autoboston.com, as I mentioned a few days ago, there were 1.2 million alternative fuel vehicles on the road in the United States as far back as 2002. They’ve gotta fill up somewhere. When GreenGas Kwik-e-Marts start popping up in strategic locations all over the country, I’m fully expecting crews like Modernista to start promoting cars that go 10 miles on can of soda.
The Summer Hummer - comes with free beach umbrella and a Colman cooler in case of emergency.
Leave a Response