Sweet Willy
Rookie
- May 20, 2009
- 2,637
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- Banned
- #101
As far as measuring ethanol MPG against gasoline, that's bullshit.
It's a fact:
Consumer Reports may irritate a lot of hybrid SUV owners with a new report that was just released. Their study focused on the new flex fuel, 2007 Chevy Tahoe SUV. The Tahoe can either run on gasoline or e85 ethanol, which is a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. The report found that the Tahoe averaged 14 mpg on gasoline, and only 10 mpg on ethanol. This decrease in mpg is expected because ethanol contains less energy than gasoline.
I am not disputing that ethanol yields less MPG. I would think you understood that when I asked if you would balk at a water powered engine that gets 5 MPG. Measuring this by gallons is irrelevant. Availability of fuel, ease of procurement, politics of procurement, all of those things should be considered. I'm sure a "gallon" of uranium will yield phenomenal MPGs. Do you think that is a relevant comparison to gasoline?
And as I stated before, I'm not endorsing ethanol. It does show promise. The food argument is valid. Equally valid is the argument for sources like switch grass, not to mention the Brazillian model where the entire country runs on ethanol from sugar beets and somehow, we still get to eat sugar too.
If every innovator and visionary in history listened to to this crap we'd still be chasing wild game with spears and fishing by hand.