Ethanol, in the US, is a scam. It is a way to provide extra funds for the long suffering distillers, like ADM and Cargill. (Tongue firmly planted in cheek) It does not contribute to moving cars (at 10% and in current US fleet).
Does no one else find it strange that just as the large ethanol replacement for oil comes on line, by government fiat, oil prices increase? 10% of the 40% of oil used for transportation should have lead to a 4% drop in US oil consumption. I don't think it happened.
Ethanol in Brazil is used in higher concentrations, in vehicles that compensate for the ethanol content. It does contribute to a reduction in oil consumption. Ethanol production in Brazil developed to meet a real need and using reasonable feedstock.
E85 is also a scam in the US. It vastly overstates the fleet mileage for big US vehicles. The MPG used in the CAFE calculation is adjusted E85 vehicles. So, E85 F150s and E85 Tahoes, get 2x their actual mileage, leading to better CAFE for the US manufacturers.
Example: Gigantic F150 actual mileage 12 MPG.
Gigantic F150 using E85 actual mileage 9 MPG.
Gigantic F150 using E85 for purposes of calculating Corporate Average Fuel Economy 24 MPG
Not really helping.
For E85 to make sense, it must be, at least, 30% cheaper at the pump to make up for the loss of MPG. That seems quite doable with the pricing from the Brazil producer. I am just trying to make sure people look at the real output of the system, vehicles moving, not gallons of fuel. |
