CAFE Standards And Other Assorted Energy Stuff

An agreement among Congressional Democrats has paved the way for an increase in the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Standards of 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. As a person working in the auto industry, I have always been a firm believer in letting the market dictate what kind of vehicles the consumer buys. But I am going to shock everyone by actually supporting this increase. Here are my reasons why:

1. The United States needs to decrease its' dependence on foreign oil, and this will save over a million barrels a day.
2. A million barrels a day at $96 a barrel equals $3.5 billion a year of our cash that we don't put into the pockets of Hugo Chavez, Armagedonijihad et al.
3. There is enough time for our auto companies to work out the technology to accomplish this feat. In fact, with the fuel cell and advanced dual-mode hybrid technologies that General Motors is already putting into production, 40 miles per gallon is not too far away.

My problem is in a couple of other parts of this energy bill.

This bill mandates a seven-fold increase in the production of ethanol for use as a motor fuel. Are they nuts? We currently subsidize ethanol to the tune of $1.45 per gallon. With the new requirement to produce 36 billion gallons of ethanol a year by 2022, subsidies would amount to almost $54 billion of our tax dollars. We are already seeing an increase in the price of corn and meat (corn is a staple in most animal feed). With the increased farm land that would have to be dedicated to corn production, we will also see an increase in just about every farm product.

Another part of this legislation that sticks in my craw is the requirement for non-public electric utilities to produce at least 15 percent of their power from renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. I can understand the desire to slow down our use of coal. Even if you don't believe in global warming, spewing all that crap into the air just can't be good. But unless they consider the atom a renewable energy source, they aren't attempting to use the cleanest energy available.

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Ethanol and Other Myths

If you listen to the environmentalists, you would think that E85 ethanol was the panacea that was going to save the planet. Only here at the Blogway Boys will you hear the real story of ethanol.

E85 ethanol is a bio-fuel incorporating 85% ethanol (a fuel distilled from corn in the USA) and 15% gasoline. This concoction is supposed to lessen our dependence on foreign oil and make the USA energy independent. One thing we have here in the USA is lots of corn. Here are the facts:

• It currently takes 1 gallon of oil to grow and produce 1.35 gallons of ethanol
• Ethanol must then be trucked to the filling stations (seems that putting it in a pipeline degrades the ethanol)
• The end result is that by the time you pump it into your tank, it takes a little over a gallon of oil to produce and ship each gallon of ethanol.

O-kay, so we aren't saving the planet with ethanol, but here comes myth number two. Ethanol is cheaper than gasoline. Not so fast:

• The Federal Government subsidizes the ethanol industry to the tune of $6 to $8 billion dollars a year ... that is the only reason that ethanol is a little cheaper than gasoline.
• Your car gets lower gas mileage with ethanol than with gasoline (about 6 miles per gallon less).
• Ethanol production is pushing the price of corn up (from about $2.50 a bushel to $3.15 and will go higher as more ethanol plants open up)
• The price of corn also effects the price of milk, eggs and meat as farmers and ranchers must pay more for feed for their stock.
• As more farm acreage is turned over to corn, the price of other grains and vegetables is going up (because supply is going down).

Well if you put it that way ... I guess it isn't cheaper than gasoline. But what about it being a renewable resource? Fact:

• Each acre of corn produces 500 gallons of ethanol a year.
• The US consumes 19.6 million gallons of oil per day
• Do the math ... If every acre of the US were converted to corn production we would still fall about 2 months short of our yearly usage

So what do we do? First thing is we need to start building nuclear power plants again. We would probably need about 150 new plants to cover our electricity needs. We also need to put the $8 billion of ethanol subsidies into the development of hydrogen fuel cells. A car can run hundreds of miles on just pennies worth of hydrogen and emit only a little water out of its' tailpipe.

We need to stop living in dreamland and start making the real world a better place for us and our kids to live in.

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