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Technology Stocks : Microsoft Corp. - Moderated (MSFT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rkral who wrote (12935)	9/8/2006 9:40:51 PM
From: miraje	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 19790

then the ethanol producers should all be going broke soon. OT: Maybe we should rename this thread "MSFT, Energy, Politics, etc.. :) Current levels of ethanol production and usage are the direct result of political mandates (farm state and enviro lobbying) and substantial taxpayer subsidies directed towards the producers (i.e. Archer Daniels Midland, etc). Without these extenuating factors, purely economic market forces would negate the vast majority of ethanol production that's taking place today. BTW, there is no argument contradicting the fact that a gallon of ethanol produces substantially less energy than a gallon of gasoline, although ethanols octane rating is quite a bit higher (why some race cars use it). Independent testing has shown that a vehicles MPG decreases around 20 to 25 per cent when using E85 compared to pure unleaded gas. Without large subsidies and mandates, nobody would use the stuff. Flex fuel vehicles that are being produced today are a joke, as they cannot take advantage of ethanols naturally high octane while still being able to use regular gas. A car or truck engine that's designed to run on E85 exclusively (very high compression ratios) would be a little more efficient and might make a little more sense. As for fuel sipping diesels (lack of), we can thank the smog boys (more stringent standards than Europe, where they comprise 50% or more of new vehicle sales) for their minuscule numbers on the road here. And we can also thank GM for giving them a bad rap due to their bungling efforts in the late 70's and early 80's...