Why is Ethanol and Soy Biodiesel not being used NOW !!!?

Question

That would put our farmers back to work and we would depend on Arab countries less. Seems like a great way to replace tobacco farming. What is taking so long?

Answer 1

Brazil did this and it worked. If American farmers decide to go that way and automakers decide to go that way, all the lobbyists in the world cannot stop them. We need a Bill Gates type of entrepreneur to promote this industry.

Answer 2

Wow, there are a lot of answers here, unfortunately not many of them are correct. Let me try to set some facts straight.

First of all, ethanol does NOT take more energy to create than it contains. More than 15 studies have proven that ethanol is a net energy gain. One of the best is a 2004 USDA study showing that ethanol contains 67% more energy than it takes to produce.

Secondly, ethanol is now being blended in 40% of the total U.S. gasoline supply. Many areas of the country have 10% ethanol (E10) in all of the gasoline blends available at the pump. All cars can take this blend with no modifications whatsoever.

E85 is another story. It is not yet widely available, but great strides are being made to change that. Only vehicles that are "Flex Fuel" can take E85. Go here to see if your vehicle is a Flex Fuel Vehicle. http://www.drivingethanol.org/aspx/take_action/checkmycar.aspx

In 2005, there was more than 5 billion gallons of ethanol produced. In 2006, that number is expected to increase to more than 7 billion. One hundred ethanol plants are in production in the U.S. and more than 30 more are under construction.

Our farmers are the heroes in this story. Some midwestern farmers realized ethanol's potential during the OPEC crisis in the 1970's and started to invest in ethanol plants. Retailers in the midwest began selling 10% ethanol and it's been available for more than 30 years. The farmers are finally getting decent prices for the corn they've been selling at a pittance for years.

Read more about ethanol at www.drivingethanol.org

Answer 3

We depend on arab countries for less than 20% of our oil....

But anyways....

Good old gasoline is still MUCH cheaper and easier to make, transport, use, and sell with our current infrastructure.

How many cars do you see on the road right now that can run on ethanol or biodeisel? Very few, that's why we still have gas.

Answer 4

They are being used. However, none of these are the end-all as a replacement for oil. All we are doing with the use of ethanol is circumventing the million year process (which ultimately creates oil). It actually takes more energy to create ethanol than it produces.

Answer 5

The way I understand it is that there are not enough cars in USA set up to use this Soy stuff. And the Ethanol stuff is now a mandatory in big cities, like Dallas, Fort Worth, etc.... That is what I was told.

Answer 6

In a nutshell, the Big Oil lobby. Ethanol has been a feasable alternative for years, yet the oil companies would have to adapt to serving a new demand, which costs money they don't want to spend. They just want to keep on getting something for nothing and get richer and richer on the blood of innocent people who have had to give their lives to line the pockets of Bush's gang of fat thugs.

Answer 7

The thing is that the government will lose a lot of money. I mean, the American gov. has a deal with car producers giants -such as Ford, GM, Daimler Chrysler - so they keep producing fuel cars instead of bio diesel or whichever other fuel, and the politicians get money for that.

Besides, all these Arab sultans are close friends of high politicians in the American gov.

So, would you stab one of your richest friends on the back? I dn't think so.

Answer 8

the last thing we need to do is look toward the government for a solution. if they cannot be prepared to handle major disasters such as katrina, nor can they properly implement handing out relief funds to help the true needy, not the ones who spend their money on entertainment purposes, how can we actually trust the government to control the production/distribution and research of alternative energies?

right now those alternative energies are too expensive for the common consumers to bear if we truely want those implemented. prices would be higher than current gasoline prices. food prices would soar as well.

basically its just not yet cost-effective for everyone to switch to it. its like why dont we mine the moon for its vast mineral sources? its just not cost effective yet for a free market.

yes we could throw the government into getting it going, but that would be worse than letting a free market develop and implement it. it all comes down to central planning versus a free market.

infact we could blame current government regulation for the lack of progress in rolling out these alternative cars. look at what Tucker went through when he tried to go up against the big car companies in the 1950s. the big car companies use government as a means to keep their hold on the market share by forcing new entrepeneurs into the industry to adhere to expensive regulation quotas and licensing which keep them from achieving a foothold in the market. if we could keep government out of the free market then the big guys would be forced to compete against each other for their market share, rather than have it guaranteed by our government.

Answer 9

It takes 300 million gallons of water to produce 100 gallons of ethanol.

Answer 10

Low production capabilities and few vehicles that can run on them. It's a double edged arguement - manufactureres won't build the vehicles capable of running on them until there are adequate fueling outlets and gas stations won't install tanks and pumps until there is an adequate demand (i.e more vehicles)