Feed a Farmer, Not a Terrorist

You've already heard me sing the praises of using ethanol instead of oil in our vehicles. I've done more research on this topic than I did for any term paper I ever wrote in college. My conviction that bio-fuels are superior to fossil fuels is even stronger now than ever. Now, even NASCAR is considering "going green."http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?slug=ap-nascar-goinggreen&prov=ap&type=lgns

1. Ethanol burns cleaner than petroleum. Carbon dioxide (which plants and trees absorb and in time release oxygen as a result) is a by-product of burning ethanol. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon monoxide (which can kill you within minutes and poisons the earth's atmosphere).

2. Ethanol can be made from renewable resources such as corn, grain, grass, sugar cane, wood, and various forms of waste. All of the oil on earth will be completely used up in no more than 50 years.

3. Ethanol gives cars more horsepower. E85 fuel (85% ethanol) burns at 105 octane compared to 89 octane for regular gas. Hotter burning fuel gives your engine more power and burns cleaner which keeps your engine running better in the long run.

4. Ethanol is less energy dense than gas, but technology is solving that. The fuel and oil additive used by the FlexTek company for their conversion kits for using ethanol literally plates the metal surfaces in your engine. This prevents wear, removes deposits, and increases compression which all contribute to making the vehicle run more efficiently. Ethanol vehicles get approximately 10 to 20% less mpg than conventional gas powered cars. A typical car that can reach 400 miles on a tank of gas will still go around 350 miles on a tank of ethanol. However...

5. Ethanol is cheaper than gas. In Mid-Missouri, Breaktime Convenience Stores offer e85 at about 40 cents per gallon less than regular gas. It is 60 cents per gallon less than premium gas (which only offers 93 octane compared to e85's 105 octane rating.) On a 16 gallon fill-up, you would save $6.40 compared to regular gas and $9.60 compared to premium. That's a savings of a couple hundred dollars per year. So, ethanol is about 20% cheaper than regular gas and is only 10 to 20% less efficient. Therefore, ethanol and gas cost about the same.

To sum it all up:

• When comparing fuel efficiency to price, ethanol and gasoline are about equal.
• When it comes to the environment, ethanol wins.
• When it comes to supporting the local economy, ethanol wins. Missouri farmers produce the feedstock for ethanol. They own co-ops that produce the ethanol. Purchasing ethanol gives a huge boost to our economy.
• Saudi Arabia (where most of the 9-11 hijackers came from), Venezuela (a state that has just given dictator-like powers to their socialist president), and Nigeria (a country in the midst of a civil war caused by savage inequalities generated by the oil industry) are three of our top five sources of crude oil. Iraq, Kuwait, and Russia are also high on the list (and are not exactly our closest allies). http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html
• Canada and Mexico are the two other oil importers to the U.S. on the top five list. If we switch to an 85% ethanol 15% gasoline society, our North American allies would continue to provide the majority of our oil imports while eliminating the need to rely on countries than sponsor terrorists and the deprivation of liberty. We wouldn't have to go to war over oil interests. Let them have their dwindling supplies of oil. We won't need it. Independence from foreign oil will be as liberating as our independence from England was 230 years ago.

I have added links to various ethanol related sites to the right of this page. Check them out. I will have my flex fuel conversion installed on my car in the next few weeks. There is a link to their website explaining the science quite well. I believe that I may be the first person in Missouri to use this system. I plan on publicizing the transformation in an attempt to convince others to do the same. The entire country of Brazil has used this same conversion kit successfully for over ten years. Every filling station in their country offers e100 fuel. That's 100% ethanol! Somehow, the United States is no longer the bastion of independence and cutting edge technology that we thought we were. But, its not too late to change- yet.

Feed a farmer, not a terrorist. Go Green.