Kevin Cameron mixes alcohol and politics

[ChipBeck_imp]

WARNING: RANDOM THOUGHTS FOLLOW........

It appears that Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) provides huge quantities of "grain neutral ethyl alcohol" to the "spirits" industries. Vodka bottlers, in particular - since (by law) vodka is 40% alcohol and 60% water.

Blended whisky bottlers also buy large quantities of their ethyl alcohol.

Most of the rice crop in the USA goes into beer production.

Brazil grows a lot of sugarcane. What to do with all that sugarcane? I KNOW !!! Let's mandate 25% alcohol in the gasoline mix.
I'm thinking that Brazil pioneered a lot of the research and technology for materials that play well with alcohol.

Next random thought, please........

You think right. That is exactly what happened. Brazil started this bandwagon, whose time has come and gone. With oil reserves burgeoning (that's a journalist word) and prices tanking (another journo pun), no one needs more ethanol for IC fuel.

On the other hand, Cameron's suggestion that using that extra corn for ethanol instead of for food raises food prices is absurd in the extreme. A preposterous leap.

There is no "extra" corn. Corn syrup was foisted onto the market by corn growers some decades back, as a replacement for sugar. The corn industry, like any industry, is always seeking new markets. Nothing wrong with that. If ethanol can be a market, so be it. But we don't need ethanol any longer, with fossil fuels plentiful and ever-greater efficiencies in cars and trucks.

I own two E85 "Flex-fuel" vehicles and have never put a drop of E85 in either. It's impossible to find; it would cost me a tank of fuel to visit the nearest Flexfuel station, and it's less efficient and more costly. Why would I do something like seek E85 under those circumstances? It would be stupid.

But, this article did get me thinking my Sym Wolf Classic 150 probably doesn't like ethanol much. Could be wrong, I don't know what kind of fuel they use in Taiwan. It may be just fine. E10 should be np.

As a final word, I think KC is imbibing of the finer spirits at times, perhaps just prior to writing this piece. Maybe?

The thing is, he covers no new ground, none at all. Nick Ienatsch's article was very helpful, KC's, not so much. Not at all, really.

Recent political shifts may end the threat of E15 gas at least as a national mandate.

Ya think?! Probably put the whole concept away for good. Now KC can feel good about more cornmeal for the poor people. "Let them eat cornbread, I say."

Gentlemen,

I've been a gas and oil dealer for decades for Chevron, ARCO, and Shell as well as one of the largest independent E-85 dealers in Arizona and I completely disagree with the above statement. Far from being absurd in the extreme Kevin's opinion is shared by top management at major oil companies and by me. Good grief man, America is the worlds bread basket and the largest producer of grains for export to other areas of the world. We pass a stupid law mandating the use of corn to make our gasoline less efficient, a mandate that uses up 40% of all the corn grown in this country. Corn prices are much higher as a result and the price of many food staples in the underdeveloped world doubles and triples in some areas. An extreme hardship for people who spend 80+% if their income just to feed themselves. This isn't an opinion, it's a verifiable fact. Do you think the laws of supply and demand that determine prices wont respond to a mandate that swallows such a massive share of U.S. farm production? Ethanol is bad for everybody who isn't a farmer worldwide. It unquestionably raises food prices and Kevin Cameron is right on. A little more thorough research on anybodies part will lead them to the same conclusion. Cheers.

Chip