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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (169534)	6/11/2006 7:42:47 PM
From: pheilman_	Respond to of 793817

Is this necessary or a defect of the present system? Anyhow, if my choice is to pay Hugo Chavez or the House of Saud vs. ADM, I'd rather pay ADM. It is how the present system works. It is possible it could be enhanced with a second O2 sensor after the catalytic converter but it will take quite a while before that happens on a large percentage of vehicles. The huge point is the political point. ADM as the distiller of 37% of the ethanol in the US has lobbied for gasohol. The government didn't look at the numbers or didn't care. The result is, we are paying more to both Hugo and ADM. Here's how: Before Gasohol, assume 20 MPG car Crude + Energy --> 10 Gallons of Gasoline, car goes 200 miles With Gasohol Crude + Energy --> 10 gallons of Gasoline, car goes 200 miles Corn + Energy --> 1.1 gallons of Ethanol, everybody gets paid ^^^^^^ Note the extra energy needed to move the cars the same distance. Maybe from coal or natural gas but it sure comes from somewhere. And it is waste. Political Version: Before Gasohol Huge amounts of surplus corn, leading to lowered prices, low profits for ADM, low lobbying dollars. After Gasohol Corn starch used to make ethanol, lowering prices for other corn products, huge profits for ADM and other distillers, passed on as lobbying dollars to government. Alcohol is an "oxygenate" which on modern cars (with closed oxygen sensor fuel injection control) means that the computer is "fooled" into thinking that the mixture is too lean with 10% alcohol, therefore the computer enriches the system to "compensate" (using more fuel). More alcohol is also therefore ingested into the engine and it becomes a spiraling effect of enriching the mixture to some extent (in theory). Therefore, a measured 10% to 20% reduction in MPG with gasohol and a total waste of the ethanol. And this is an investment site, so, perhaps we should recognize profit and invest in ADM, 'coz its all gravy until the citizenry realizes that their lousy gas mileage has been mandated.