Washington state signs ethanol requirement
Last
month, Washington became the fourth state to join the growing ethanol wave. Governor Christine Gregoire
signed the bill, which states that two percent of the state's diesel and gasoline must come from biodiesel or
ethanol by the end of 2008. Other parts of the bill require state agency purchases to include a minimum of 20 percent
biodiesel.Washington is the fourth state to enact an ethanol requirement. The other states are Minnesota, Montana and Hawaii.
[Source: American Coalition for Ethanol]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Andrew 8:52PM (4/15/2006)
Ethanol costs more, and give less miles per gallon.
A victory of lobbyists over common sense and economics. There are many alternative fuels, why ethanol?
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bud dailey 9:06PM (4/15/2006)
Despite some of the drawbacks with ethanol it takes us one more step away from the dependence of foreign oil. Admittedly we still have a long way to go to get the fossil fuel monkey off our backs.
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Joe Kaplan 11:34PM (4/15/2006)
Why are we not all up in arms about the fuel bill which Congress passed which does not put most of the money for alternative power sources, but rather more money to oil companies for exploration. WE ALL need to write our legislators to change things to bring about alternative energey sources. Put windmills up along the entire northeasts coastline and pacific coast! Tax breaks for solar water heaters in every home. Subsidies for farmers to grow corn to make into ethanol.
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Andrew 12:13AM (4/16/2006)
bud daily;
At what cost should we reduce oil consumption? At *any* cost? If there is a technology that costs $7.87 dollars for every gallon saved, is this worth it? Actually that estimate is from:
http://zfacts.com/p/60.html
What if some other technology can cut consumption more for the same money? What if that technology does not have the high paid lobbyist?
What about a technology called "not driving huge vehicles"? This has been available for decades. Simply using smaller vehicles would save much more and for less money.
What about buntanol? www.butanol.com shows this might be superior to ethanol.
The situation with ethanol is a "free lunch scam". Someone says "geeze gas is high". Ethanol seller says "Ethanol costs 40 cents more per gallon, but the federal government will borrow 51 cents, give it to me, to make it cheaper, don't worry your kids can pay it back"
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bud dailey 1:06PM (4/16/2006)
Andrew,
### Gee Andrew ,how can you deny your fellow Americans their God given birthright to drive the biggest gas guzzlers Detroit can put on the market. Most Americans have always believed that bigger is better and they still show their immaturity regarding fuel conservation,I suspect most of the bigger is better crowd is waiting for a miracle from the oil industry in order to free them from any kind of sensible conservation.
As far as alternative fuels go I would consider any solution that would get us off the oil addiction this country suffers from.
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JimC 2:18PM (4/16/2006)
Not only is the economic illiteracy on display here depressing, but this bashing of Americans' preference for large vehicles is pathetic. I was in Europe last year, and I saw Hummer H2s for Chrissakes, and most vehicles were only somewhat smaller on average, with tons of SUVs.
All their attempts at social engineering have only delayed the rise of the auto-centric suburban lifestyle and are slowly crushing their economy, and governments in the US are playing a sad game of 'catch up.'
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bud dailey 12:57PM (4/17/2006)
### So the more fossil fuels we consume the better our economy will be to the point of polluting the whole country,funding Islamic terrorism by our reliance on oil,promoting all kinds of health problems from emission of particulates from industrial and motor vehicles exhausts using fossil fuels.
Should we emulate the European example and continue to pay more and more at the pump for our petroleum fix instead of looking for a more viable source of energy that may cost more in the beginning but will later prove it's value in independence from the Middle eastern insanity and other despots who control oil supplies.
Shall we continue to declare our birthright to posses mega vehicles burning fossil fuels and damn the consequences of that idiocy.
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DaEl Walker 3:46PM (4/20/2006)
Why do we keep hearing ethanol costs more than gasoline? The numbers are very inflated. Why does everyone look to corn as the means for creating ethanol. Why not sugar beets? All of the sugar beet would be consumed in the process whereas corn only uses the kernels of corn, a very small percentage of the whole plant? What research has been done on other plants to produce alcohol? Anybody hear of jerusalem artichokes? Pound for pound the J.A. tuber will produce 3 to 5 times as much sugar as the beet and it, too, can use the whole plant in the processing for alcohol. Has anyone looked at the production of either the beets or the jerusalem artichoke using hydroponics? The numbers are clear, hydroponic crop growing is at least 25 % more efficient than open field growing. What about coupling windmills or solar panels for the energy for making ethanol. Back in the 70's and 80's, Mother Earth magazine pioneered researach in inexpensive methods of producing alcohol to drive electric generators to produce energy, or drive a car. What happened to that research? If any of these methods were to be used you would find alcohol could be produced much cheaper than corn. Why are we not investigating these alternatives?
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Ethanol 10:38PM (4/20/2006)
You can find more info on ethanol at:
http://www.ethanol-news.com
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Nicholas Hollis 12:23PM (4/22/2006)
Ethanol is largely controlled by one company, ADM, which has reportedly held 75% of the so-called industry until just a few years ago - when, mysteriously, many smaller ethanol producers began emerging under shrouds of impenetrable (i.e. non-transparent) ownership schemes. Although ADM mouthpiece groups and lobbyists claimed that these groups reflected farmer cooperatives, recent buyouts from overseas indicate something quite different is happening as the ethanol giant ramps up to meet the legislatively created (artifical) demand. In fact, if our Justice Department would investigate antitrust and anti-competitive issues lurking just below the surface here -- they might discover what the ag community has long believed-- Ethanol is a monopoly controlled, highly subsidized "snake oil"which itself is an abusive, unsustainable scam whose existence testifies to the growing corruption in Washington and state capitals around the country.
The fact that the media won't report this story honestly is even more chilling- since the same company (ADM) and its senior shareholder - Dwayne Andreas, former ADM chairman-- carry enormous leverage via advertising, program sponsorships and outright ownership of key print/tv/radio media outlets around the country. Next time you hear one of those feel good jingles about "getting out for a breath of fresh air" -- or how ethanol helps America in a energy stressed world -- just remember-- you're being had!
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