Hi Jim,

I've heard about that study, but have not looked at it in detail. But I
can tell you this: If you want to know about the legitimacy of a study,
look at who produced it and who is quoting it. My bets are that the
study in question was done by the petrochemical industry, and being
quoted by one of their lobby groups. Any study submitted to the press
is designed to support an agenda. That's what they're for.

Personally, I would expect that if ethanol actually cost more energy to
produce than it contains, the price would reflect that. And I know that
even *if* current ethanol production techniques are inefficient, that
doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to stay that way as the
demand for ethanol increases.

Biodiesel is definitely worth looking at, but the cost of re-fitting my
aircooled buses to a diesel powerplant is NOT insignificant. And as the
cost of gasoline continues to increase I can only expect the cost of
suitable donor diesel powerplants to increase.  Sigh. I'm only just now
getting somewhat proficient wrenching on my gasoline engines.

Carbon added to the atmosphere due to transportation technology doesn't
care if it's from corn, sugar beets or dead dinosaurs, the end result
is no different.

Happy trails,

Greg Potts
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1973/74/79 Westfakia Conversion **Bob the Tomato**  LY3H
1977 Sunroof Automatic L63H/L90D
http://www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia
http://www.busesofthecorn.com

On 5-Mar-05, at 8:24 PM, Jim Felder wrote:

>>
>>
>> The bad news is that alcohol as an additive burns hotter and produces
>> less power than gasoline. My air-cooled buses are going to hate that.
>>
>
> I am all for paying farmers for fuel rather than mid-east royal
> families, but I've seen studies--don't know if they're legit or
> not--that show that the energy benefit from the ethanol is less than
> the energy used to produce it.
>
> Vegetable diesel might do better. Besides, the carbon load it puts
> into the air came from last year's crop, so there's no net co2 gain
> unlike petro fuel which loads the atmosphere with carbon from long ago
> that otherwise wouldn't be there.
>
> Jim
>
>
>