Started burning E85

[clemsonfor]

I have a lot of reasons why I don't use gasoline but I have no interest in arguing my political views on the subject. The best way to stick it to the oil industry is to simply not use oil. The biggest oil consumption machines I have are my pickup trucks. The other reason is environmental and simply personal responsibility. I have a 2003 Silverardo with about 58,000 miles on it ann the 2012 is new. I ride a bicycle 23 miles each way to work and have been for several years. I agree that ethanol is not the solution, the solution is the mindset of people that are clearly addicted to oil just as a junkie is addicted to heroin. If you don't change the way you think then you are doomed to paying higher fuel cost as time goes or the planet dies.

The cost of ethanol production using the argument that it takes more oil to produce is not exactly acurate in the long run. It doesn't matter what energy we wind up converting to in the beginning it has to start out with the existing infrastructure. Tractors run on oil, bulk transportation is based on oil, new pipelines have to be built to transport ethanol. The same argument is used for any kind of alternative energy and is true on the short term. It isn't a matter of if it is a matter of when. The oil supply will either reach the point where dwindling supply will make it too expensive or global warming will become to important to ignore.

Global warming is a real event and the polar ice caps are receding much faster the original were predicted. When that happens the planet will die. Without the polar caps the ocean current stops moving and senses to exist. The air stops moving because the jet stream can no longer exist. With no ocean current and stagnant air because their is no convection the planet dies and it simply doesn't matter anymore.

You right ethanol isn't the answer, solar isn't the answer, wind, electricity, nuclear, are not the answer on their own. The answere is in our mindset and all these things are just the pieces we have available for us to save ourselves.

I do have a big problem with the oil industry. I have a problem with all big buisness buying out politicians and installing them into our governments to serve their needs. It happens in every government across the globe. I am in the trucking industry and I know exactly what it cost to transport comdity around the country. Oil dictates the cost of everything we use, it is the source of every bit of inflated prices of every single item we use or consume.

Change starts in the mindset, it will take time to change our infrastructure and it will happen sooner or later. We either do it while it is under our controled or it will happen on its own. The next century will see a time with no oil industry at least not based on fossil fuel. I might not see it but our children and grand children will. Let's hope they are better than us at fixing the mess we made in the last 100 years

What do you do when your half way to work and it starts pouring rain? Do you do in soaked or half soaked as you had a coat but your pants cuffs and shoes are soaking? What about when its 35F and cold rain? And how long does this take you? I have a 26 mile commute and i would be riding a bike most of the day if i rode it!!

 

[crazyal]

Timber, have you gotten any further into making your own Ethanol? I skipped most of the Ethanol is good and Ethanol is bad parts so I may have missed it if you already answered it. I did look at the links you posted about possible equipment to make Ethanol, seamed kind of pricey. But if you could get a small group of friends/ neighbors together and split the costs and still be able to produce enough fuel for everyone it may make more sense.

 

[clemsonfor]

I agree with you. But I believe that gas ICE are 25% and Diesel are 40% efficient.

Most of us could make good use of a battery car that goes 100 miles like the Nissan Leaf as long as we had a vehicle that we can use for the other, non-commuter purposes. We have two cars and when one dies it will be replaced by an all-electric.

I thought i read that the Volt or Leaf had varing mileage limits based upon use. Anywhere form say 50ish to that 100ish miles per charge. This means that if your on an interstate going 65mph you would ralize more like 45miles per charge, but if your in traffic in a city or cruising at 35mph in a city you will get more like 90mpg. My point being i drive pretty much 55-60mph on highways to go to work, i go through a few (4) towns that are about 1 mile long each where i may drop to 45mph but usually 50mph. I drive about 53 miles if all i do is leave my door to go to work and back, not diverting trips inbetween. if i realistically can only go 60 miles on a charge like this this will mean my last few miles of my trip i may only be able to reach speeds of 45mph? What if i want to go to the store 10-15 miles past the office (im really in the middle of nowhere at work), i wont make it home unless i can plug up during the day. Not to mention even with the tax breaks this year i think the $45k volt was still $30+k yes the volt has a gas backup to produce electric for the baterries but Leaf dosent. Then we get to battery replacement. I drive my vehicles till there is not anything left! At work we have a hybrid Vue (saturn) they said life on the batteries is like 8 or 10 years and they cost like $3k to replace!! It dosent have a spare or a jack, and what i was told is that if you jack wrong you will puncture the batteries so they dont even equipt with one (not sure if this is true or not but what i was told). Also i looked at hybrids hard when i was doing a hyper commute, the mileage on the interstate on say a civic Hy was not much better to warrent the extra expense over say a decent used honda civic that got 40mpg on straight gas.

I am positive and looking foward to this technology but its just not there yet and dose not make sense to those of use watching our dollars right now. I can get by on a small car as a commuter, i do it now, i drive a 1997 Saturn SL2. It gets a consistant 32mpg sometimes 34+ when i run it on straight 100% gas instead of E10. I drive this instead of my ford ranger that gets 22mpg (1990 yearmodel) This saves me over a $1,000 in todays fuel prices. I also have a 1980 chevy k10 for 4wd and pulling tractors and boats around. Yea i cant haul anything in the saturn or hunt out of it, but i just plan accordingly. If im cutting firewood one day i drive a truck if i hunt or need to pick up lumber that day i do the same.

Many folks could save a ton of cash a year if they were not so concerned with the status of thier vehicle and what they drive so much. A 90s or 00s honda civic easily gets 40mpg and for way less than 10k. This is a much wiser choice than spending the cash for a prius. The greenist car in an article last year in "mother earth news" was the new ford Festiva, an all gas car, if i remember right. They said it was the cheapest to operate considering purchase price and fuel costs etc.