Getting back to my point, anhydrous ethanol is not a fuel, it's an oxygenate that replaced another oxygenate called MTBE. MTBE is an invention of the oil industry that helped them get rid of poisonous byproducts of refining crude oil that the EPA doesn't allow them to legally dump into the atmosphere - isobutylene (anhydrous ether). Enron made its climb to the top of the economic ladder supporting and controlling the logistics of MTBE production and distribution.
Oxygenates were designed to enhance emissions from gasoline engines, not as fuel. They purposely cause mileage losses to increase emissions of VOC's. In 1990, there was bad smog problem nationwide. VOC's mix with smog and dissolve it. The resulting pollution, low level ozone, is much more dangerous than the smog oxygenates get rid of but it's largely invisible so complaints about air quality were marginalized by using them. When it became too widely known that MTBE polluted groundwater nationwide, it was replaced with anhydrous ethanol in 2006.
When the state of California took the EPA to court and proved oxygenates worsen air quality, the president stepped in saying ethanol was now being required under the Clean Air Act to be used as a fuel additive to lessen our dependence of foreign oil. He sited Brazil's use of ethanol to become energy independent to validate his reasoning. For whatever reason, no one challenged him with the fact that Brazil uses hydrous ethanol, not anhydrous ethanol. If you query experts on the issue, they will say that hydrous ethanol has water in it that can't be mixed with gasoline. But if you search the keywords "hydrous ethanol" and "gasoline," you will find countless articles relating how it is being done successfully and has been for a very long time in places that were until recently considered third world countries without causing mileage losses or pollution like anhydrous ethanol does.
MTBE is made from natural gas and toxic byproducts of refining oil. Both are resources we have an overabundance of. Since we started making anhydrous ethanol from our most precious national asset, corn, our economy has fastly been falling apart. In fact the value of the dollar began the steep decline in value that lead to 4 dollar a gallon gasoline just as the EPA oxygenate program switched from MTBE to ethanol. And according to this new report on climate change, VOC emissions from ethanol and the refineries that produce it are causing the extreme weather pattern changes that we're being told are part of a global warming process caused by carbon dioxide. But if we look at how these other countries use ethanol, we find they do it in a way that doesn't cause these problems while none of our leader seem to know the difference between hydrous and anhydrous ethanol.
It reminds me of how abortion and gay marriage are dealt with politically in this country as if real solutions to those problems that would benefit everyone are not welcomed by either side of the debate. Rather their differences are purposely staged so both parties are wrong so they can divide us into two voting camps while pushing most intelligent Americans away from the election process altogether. But even with energy costs being at the center of our economy failing, it isn't enough to get anyone in Washington or the presidential candidates to come up with real solutions if the dysfunctional issues they would be applied to can easier be used to garnish the votes of special interest groups if left broken.
Really what amazes me most about this presidential election process is watching the news media report on the dreams the candidates have for our future on the back pages of the same newspapers that the front pages are reporting on how we don't have an economy anymore. But for McCain and Obama, it's business as usual where they have no plan for how to lead us out of this desperate place, only for what they will do with our economy when it fixes itself. What they have is confidence in our ability to put things back on track towards a path they both blame the other for not having guided us to in the first place. Then they'll show us how they can make the world perfect if we elect them to the most powerful leadership position in the world.
Neither presidential campaign seem to represent themselves as playing roles in getting us to where their American dreams for us have a chance of coming true. If they do, they're keeping their plans secret but I can't imagine why. From what I understand, the debate coming up in a couple days will focus on Obama's ties to Bill Ayers and ACORN. I swear if I didn't know better, I would think all four candidates for the White House have been skipping to the back pages of the newspapers they read to find the stories about themselves while missing the front pages altogether. I wonder if they'll still be talking about getting us out of this depression using anhydrous ethanol when we can't afford to buy crude oil to make gasoline from anymore (McCain supports anhydrous ethanol made from cellulose without federal mandates or subsidies. But anhydrous ethanol made from any source is still an oxygenate, not a fuel). Hydrous ethanol can also be used as fuel by itself without mixing it with gasoline and can be produced in your backyard. Anhydrous ethanol is dangerous and corrosive even at 10 percent.
The really confusing thing is why the ethanol industry is pretending hydrous ethanol has no place in the energy debate when it can be added safely to gasoline in far higher ratios than 10 percent without hurting motors, mileage, or causing greater emissions. Maybe they like having politicians wrapped around their finger even though it's killing their industry to do so. I think they've collectively lost their minds. An extended depression caused by anhydrous ethanol ought to sober them up a bit. It better. From what I can see, the economy will keep failing as long as they keep using anhydrous ethanol instead of hydrous ethanol.
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