Other than the oil companies and/or the car companies killing it, what’s so bad about the gasohol? The only gripe I heard is that it burns half as efficiently, so you’ll need twice as much. But, with corn so abundant in this country, what’s the big deal? (Not sure just how detailed the issue has been studied in relation to the annual corn supplied by our farmers, at present, but…)
So, what’s the straight dope on gasohol? Pros and cons?
In Wisconsin it’s had to find a gas station without alcohol in the gas. Look on the gas pump, and I bet it will say 7% ethanol. The chemical name of alcohols end in “ol”. Ethenol is an alcohol.
In the long run, it costs more fuel. Ethanol is still a net loss of energy. It costs more to make than we get out of it. The reason it was added during the gas crises of the 70s was because (IIRC) all the corn is domestic, and it used a lot of domestic fuel sources to distill it, like coal and natural gas. However, seeing as currently those are running low as well, it’s not the “saviour” of the current gas crises. In some places it may still be ecominical, if they have easy access to local corn, distilleries, and fuel sources, but that’s not true for the entuire US.
Now, if we can get the majority of the US off of fossil fuel and on to solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear power, then we can go to all electricity ethanol distilleries (or even use up the fossil fuels we aren’t using for electricity) and then we can see some larger savings. But until that happens, it’s not going to be very ecomonical, and in the end, that’s what determines everything.
You’re obviously not in the Midwest. They don’t call it gasohol much anymore, but like Harmonius Discord says, it’s hard to find a pump that doesn’t say “May contain up to 10% ethanol.”
Of course, in the Midwest, it also receives tax subsidies to make it more affordable. Your state may vary.
True. Gasohol was supposedly* invented in Ames, Iowa in 1932, when corn prices were so low that the crop was close to worthless. A local filling station (named, I kid you not, the Square Deal Oil Co.) started cutting the gas with corn alcohol to bring the price down and drum up business. As soon as the corn market recovered, the idea disappeared until the '70s fuel crises.
*I grew up in Ames and a local historian, who’d been around then, personally vouched for this story. But it’s not impossible that someone else had the same idea around the same time.
I’m in a state where the pump must state its alcohol content, if any. So I know to avoid Sunoco’s. Why? The gasoline is always the same bloody price, but the fuel economy is much, much worse (on my vehicles) than real, 100% gasoline. Screw those damn farmers, and screw E85, too. All it will do is drive up the price of crops, which will either result in (a) more subsidies and more taxes, or (b) dependence on foreign corn. In either case, we’re back where we started from. 