E85 and pure ethanol works in the majority of cars and over 97% of cars are either already capable or can be made capable under $250.

Corn ethanol and thousands of other methods of scrap crops will completely well and burns cleaner than oil. The "food supply" argument is totally false. Yes ethanol burns faster (30 mpg on oil is about 22 mpg on ethanol), but it typically costs 1/3 the price of oil, so the math is obvious.

Brazil did this with sugar beet ethanol and became energy independent and paid back ALL foreign debts in just 6 years.

If we subsidized gas stations to make ethanol and e85 available, people would use it, I think.

What are your thoughts on this?

And Brazil is still destroying the world's lungs to create more crops and pastures. Each year rainforest close to the size of spain is gone.

Biofuels are a scam. E-vehicles are the future, with environmentally conscious generated power (nuclear or other durable sources).

Energy independence is a nice thing to strive for, but it shouldn't be achieved by screwing over the future generations.

Doesn't touch the carbon emissions problem so it's not a viable long term solution.

The thing is that we have reserves of oil still. I presume that they're holding them until OPEC goes full retard at some point so that we have enough in reserve to avoid a crisis while we transition over a decade or so to ethanol or other clean energy sources. I wouldnt predict a transition from OPEC oil to US ethanol without the intermediary stage of US reserve oil inbetween. Of course this all could be wrong if the social climate continues to hammer things like pipelines and arctic drilling. Even Gulf off sea drilling gets hammered by environmental groups. My guess is people will whine about NA oil until the price hits 4-5$ again, then theyll shut up.

this

I agree with these guys, why re-invent a carbon emitting source of power Put research money into batteries that will hold the maximum charge while using the minimum weight and space. Those Tesla E-cars are way cool . if they made a mini cooper E-car I'd be in love.

E85 is NOT 1/3 the price of gasoline. In MN, the average premium for regular unleaded over E85 is about 25-26%. And 30 mpg is a 26.7% increase over 22 mpg for E85, so it's pretty much a wash, just to subsidize corn farmers. Not to mention the other detriments already listed in this thread.

We need to just stop dragging our feet on modern sources of energy. This primitive stuff is really starting to become a problem.

We're still coal addicts here in Ohio. It is more powerful than crack, but we have many lawmakers here in Ohio that, frankly, are cowards and party stooges.

We actually have real hunger in America, lets not use corn to drive our cars that we overuse anyway.

This post was edited by Skinned on Aug 25 2015 10:32am

Well if it's a biofuel it is carbon neutral, depending on how it's refined.

Bio fuel was a scam or a mistake, both are valid.