Ethanol Collective ethanolcollective.com

If there was any way I could buy Gasoline without Ethanol, I would be most happy!

Richard

If you find any fault with E10 and have any claims or issues, the first thing I would ask is what is in the 90 percent gasoline that allows you to blame ethanol.

Well each person is still free in this country, for now. But I love Ethanol so much I wish I did not have to have any gasoline in the mix! Pure Ethanol for my car would be just heaven! E100 for me!

Please check out Smithsonian Magazine, November 2007

Richard,

   I checked out the Smithsonian article you refer to. The only issue I have with that is that it is almost three years old, and is still using the old food shortage arguement. The price of corn tortillas has vertually nothing to do with how many acres of corn are being used for corn based EtOH, but more to do with freight costs. As for the 51 cents and the splash and dash, yes, that is an issue depending on what side of the fence you stand on, but is being looked at and argued all the time. The statement made on the subject of EtOH production firing with coal to make it end up being worse is not true in newer plants in the United States. They all have thermal oxidizing units now that stay well beneath DNR and EPA standards, and use many other forms of energy besides coal. More and more plants are going almost 100% recycled energy. Putting all our eggs in the EtOH basket is also changing, as we are all looking at other alternatives as well. Find me a tortilla plant that uses yellow number 2 field corn only, and show me proof how they had to pay more for raw materials and thus had to raise the price of their tortillas. I would bet you would find more evidence of their diesel bill being higher, and truck, rail, and cargo ship freight costs being higher for those same time frames. EtOH is not the only answer, however, it is in fact working. Corn prices up, yes. Good for our farmers. EtOH prices up, yes. Good for our plants. Still cheaper than gasoline, yes. Good for our consumers. Environmental footprint? yes, but a smaller one than some other forms of energy production. Taking needed food from hungry people? No. That is an old arguement that has been disproven many times over. Another subject I invite you to read up on is the co-products given from EtOH production. DDGS is in many instances better for animals and people than the original corn was, and replaces 1/3 of the corn taken in the first place. It also is able to produce lower inclusion rates at higher nutritional value thus making up for almost all of the other 2/3. This time around ethanol is a bit stronger, and getting smarter all the time. Please do some more reading. Have a great day and thanks for the article.  Always enjoy a good read.