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Subject:Re: Ethanol free gas
From:Stuart MacMillan
Date:Fri, 6 Sep 2013 09:36:49 -0700

It's worth looking into the whole story of ethanol from corn in fuel so you can decide for yourself whether the benefits outweigh the costs.  It was promoted as "renewable energy" and an environmentally friendly fuel, but there are a lot of problems.  Now we are stuck with it in all of the metropolitan areas of the country:  http://necsi.edu/research/social/foodprices/foodforfuel/ 

For those of you who don't read, (like Jim ;-), here is the abstract: 

"Conversion of corn to ethanol in the US since 2005 has been a major cause of global food price increases during that time and has been shown to be ineffective in achieving US energy independence and reducing environmental impact. We make three key statements to enhance understanding and communication about ethanol production's impact on the food and fuel markets: (1) The amount of corn used to produce the ethanol in a gallon of regular gas would feed a person for a day, (2) The production of ethanol requires so much fossil fuel energy that its energy benefit is only about 20%, and (3) The cost of gas made with ethanol is actually higher per mile because ethanol reduces gasoline's energy per gallon."

Stuart

Dealing with ethanol issues since 1997 (winter fuel blend in Seattle)