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Will requiring flex-fuel capable cars free us from foreign oil?
Robert Zubrin thinks so. Zubrin is an aerospace engineer and long-time advocate of manned missions to Mars. While going to Mars is a highly dubious proposition given the issues we need to deal with on our planet right now, making all gasoline engines flex-fuel capable as Zubrin promotes in his new book is probably a very good idea. The incremental cost of flex-fuel capability is only about $100 per vehicle and that would provide the ability to use any alcohol fuel including methanol and butanol. The corn ethanol that we use today will make little if any dent in our oil imports. Cellulosic ethanol, methanol and butanol do hold a lot of promise, though. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit and his wife, Helen Smith, have an interesting interview with Zubrin on their podcast that's worth a listen. Some of Zubrin's arguments for using alcohol fuels are a bit over simplistic and ignore some of the pitfalls associated with them. That includes draining fields of nutrients if all the leftover material is converted to fuel. Alcohol fuels are unlikely to free us from oil dependence on their own, although they can make a dent. What they can really do is help diversify energy supplies and domestically produced fuels can also help to fund research into other renewable energy sources. What we really need to do, however, is find different ways to reduce our total consumption of energy while maintaining our current lifestyles. Let the flames begin!
[Source: Instapundit]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Carney 9:42AM (6/05/2008)
"While going to Mars is a highly dubious proposition given the issues we need to deal with on our planet right now..."
We went to the Moon during Vietnam didn't we?
And the cost of Zubrin's Mars Direct plan, which NASA has finally adopted in most essentials (the current Administrator is a former board member of the Mars Society), is about $50 billion over ten years for a robust program of exploration. That's $5 billion a year, well within NASA's current $17 billion a year budget. There's no room for it now because the useless space shuttle and useless space station hog too much money, but as soon as we retire the former and abandon the latter to their ant farm experiments, we'll be able to afford a space program that literally GOES SOMEWHERE without increaasing NASA's budget (a paltry >1% of govt spending).
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tankd0g 3:31PM (1/02/2008)
No.
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Mark 3:55PM (1/02/2008)
haha
Speddy 3:56PM (1/02/2008)
Exactly! A big NOPE. Why, we convert our food source into a fuel source, only to depend on other food suppliers (see grain poisoning, weather affects crops...) when there is the need, and once again, dependent on someone else to gouge us.
Extreme as it sounds, Unibomber was on to something...
Daniel 9:31PM (1/02/2008)
I agree that we must get to zero imported oil and this is a way that all of us can do our part in the Globa War on Terror. There are many ways to accomplish the zero imported oil goal - it is a matter of national will and national leadership.
I for one do not want to see a single US troop killed in the Middle East and getting off foreign oil is one big step in the right direction.
100 MPG bio-diesel hybrids would be a good start on telling the Oil Sheik pricks in the desert to put their oil where the sun don't shine.
Midnight 3:43PM (1/02/2008)
Score:
"War on Terror"- 1 vs American Energy Independence- 0
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MadeinDetroit 3:45PM (1/02/2008)
Yes. Alternative fuels, of all types and not just electrical,or bio fuels (of any root source) will get us there. I think we have all seen where over dependance on one fuel source leads us.
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tankd0g 4:28PM (1/02/2008)
E85, at least currently, is a bit of a red herring in this regard because it takes more oil to produce than we get out of it.
fizzandpop 3:52PM (1/02/2008)
No. I read a quote the other day that said walking to work was America's highest-priced luxury. Until more of us can do this, or something approaching this, then the everything else is a patch. Got's to rebuild them there urban and suburban environments.
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Sid 3:52PM (1/02/2008)
It will increase dependence on foreign food.
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10250420
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davido 3:55PM (1/02/2008)
One of the things that has marked technological advances over time has been the improvement of our lifestyles, not simply the maintenance of them.
I love to drive, but I have no commitment, intellectually or emotionally to petroleum based fuels, high vehicle weight or race car levels of performance. After all, all of my many speeding tickets (and I don't plan on getting any more given the insurance consequences) were issued for speeds under 100mph (and while I've never owned a high performance car, eveything I've owned would exceed 100).
I don't enjoy $40 fill-ups either and I've never felt more like a man because my car used more fuel than someone else's.
My driving pleasure has always come in the corners, not on the straights and If I have access to high mileage vehicles that are light enough to corner well and still have reasonable crash protection (Honda CR-Z?), I'll be perfectly happy no matter what kind of fuel propels them and no matter how little of it I use. I figure I can always spend the money I save (oil hit $100/gallon today) on something else.
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naggs 4:24PM (1/02/2008)
"One of the things that has marked technological advances over time has been the improvement of our lifestyles, not simply the maintenance of them."
not necessarily. there have been many instances since the industrial revolution where large groups of people were no better off, or even worse off as a direct result of technology.
with more and more people consuming more and more resources, technological advances my be focused on allowing more and more people to get up to a middle class living rather than advancing the quality of life for those who have already arrived.
that is really the fundamental idea behind all green tech. does it make anyone happier to have solar panels? no, what it does is make more room for others by reducing your footprint.
that being said, it is safe to say that a middle class first world citizen has a better quality of life today than a king did in the 1200s and hundreds of years from now it is safe to say that trend will still be visible. But there can and will be large periods of time where large groups of people take a few steps backward in that regard.
DADvocate 4:03PM (1/02/2008)
It seems bio-diesel has potential. Processes are being developed from which diesel can be made from algae. Plus, diesel vehicles that get very good mpg are already available, especially from VW.
Do you have an opinion on the future of diesel?
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JimboNC 5:30PM (1/02/2008)
Changing lifestyles can be as simple as changing habits. I see it everyday when drivers leaving shopping centers try to make left-turns across busy four-six-or-eight lane thuroughfares holding up other drivers who have sense enough to make right-turns followed by left-turns at the proper time to go in the opposit direction. And it's the safe way to avoid an accident.
I see it at bank drive-thru teller stations when drivers sit with their engines running. If the wait takes longer than 4-minutes turn them OFF, with fuel injection you save gas.
Either THEY change their lifestyles or somebody will change them in other ways not to their likeing.
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naggs 7:04PM (1/02/2008)
turning off you engine when in line and courtous driving are one thing, but those are the easy things that are drops in the bucket
those are not examples of the real change that will become necessary sooner or later
Mulad 4:04PM (1/02/2008)
I'd require compatibility with butanol and E85, but I'd ditch methanol. It's been tried before, and was found to have much bigger problems than ethanol.
Of course, mandating butanol compatibility would first require a fair chunk of change going into researching the stuff. It's barely on the radar at this point, and more work should be done to figure out if it's really as compatible with gasoline as its proponents claim. Knowledge of butanol is probably fairly similar to that of ethanol in the '70s or '80s.
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Owain Ozymandias Buck 11:53PM (1/02/2008)
Butanol is a pretty neat fuel, and the best one if you're adapting to gasoline engines.
But Good GOD, does it smell Heinous when it burns! I don't think that cherry scent wil cover it.
Yggdrasilly 4:04PM (1/02/2008)
Sam, we will ALWAYS have "issues to deal with on this planet." Saying we should delay exploring other worlds until all our problems here are solved is a way of saying that humanity does not deserve to explore space until it has perfected itself--and, implicitly, that it never will deserve to do so, as human perfection is im possible.
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Dr. Kenneth Noisewater 4:07PM (1/02/2008)
Frankly I'd prefer to see electric drivetrains that have a standardized 'charger' module area into which you would fit the AC generator/fuel module of your choice (gas/diesel/fuelcell/more batteries). Even with traditional drivetrains, electrification of everything (HVAC, power steering/brake pumps, etc) in every car should be done if only to increase the savings on economies-of-scale for electric components.
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naggs 4:09PM (1/02/2008)
"What we really need to do, however, is find different ways to reduce our total consumption of energy while maintaining our current lifestyles. Let the flames begin!"
its going to take a change in lifestyle too. it is difficult to imagine the transportation landscape 30 years from now looking just like it does today except cars can run on ethanol too. people are going to have to give up daily commuter SUVs and we need to get used to the idea of public transport. we need to find a way to cut commuter distance and reduce how far everything we use travels. to get to our door.
every year, we as a country will use more power than the year before. conserving here and there will do little to curb the constant growth. sure conservation and energy diversification is part of the solution but the idea that we will be able to conserve our way out of our energy troubles is not realistic. its going to take real, intrusive and noticeable change to separate ourselves economically from those that wish us harm.
only then can we begin to confront Islamic fundamentalism with something like a winning strategy
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