Ethanol & EPA, Sticking It to Us again..
Road Captain
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 501
Likes: 0
From: SW Iowa
Isn't the David Pimentel study out dated as most new plant are now around 2.9 gal of ethanol per bushel of corn. Also, he didn't take into account the feed value of the remaining byproducts of ethanol production which is sold to livestock feeders when he figured in net returns?
I've been burning E-10 in everything for years. Wore out 2 pickups, car, lawnmower without any fuel injector problems. Burn it in my '07 Busa and '08 Ultra.The HD consistantly gets 40 to 42 mpg, and had the heads off at 5000 mi when we did the SEII 103 kit, and they looked great. Ethanol is a cleaner burning, higher octane fuel than gasoline.
All this being said, I hate govt. mandates. Tax subsidies are a different thing, and it should sell itself, as it is doing (Last year 3% of all US fuel consumed was ethanol).
Extreme HDF Member
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 13,702
Likes: 38
From: Houston area
Why are we surprised...this is another government idea. Perhaps they should have asked some scientists and crunched the numbers but it did sound so good politically.
I knew alcohol burned from the time I was 12 and someone lit my shotglass. Anyone with a boat or that goes camping knows alcohol burns....which helps explain why propane is popular as it takes 8 of your 10 day vacation to boil water for a coffee using an alcohol stove.
There are some farmers that see it as a good thing...but not as many as you think. Another acre of corn replaces an acre of another veggie or wheat. I'm guessing...I am not one of those scientists ...that you could tune to run 10-20% water but I bet there is a downside to be considered. John
I knew alcohol burned from the time I was 12 and someone lit my shotglass. Anyone with a boat or that goes camping knows alcohol burns....which helps explain why propane is popular as it takes 8 of your 10 day vacation to boil water for a coffee using an alcohol stove.
There are some farmers that see it as a good thing...but not as many as you think. Another acre of corn replaces an acre of another veggie or wheat. I'm guessing...I am not one of those scientists ...that you could tune to run 10-20% water but I bet there is a downside to be considered. John
Road Captain
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 630
Likes: 0
From: The Heart Break Hotel
There is an article in this months AIM about this.
I was discussing this with the Service writer Sunday and he said that adding some Marine Sta-Bil may help some.
I haven't tried it and this was not a H-D or dealership recommendation just something he had been told by one of their techs who has been doing some research on his on.
PROCEED with caution......
I was discussing this with the Service writer Sunday and he said that adding some Marine Sta-Bil may help some.
I haven't tried it and this was not a H-D or dealership recommendation just something he had been told by one of their techs who has been doing some research on his on.
PROCEED with caution......
Last edited by badlandr; Sep 1, 2009 at 10:10 AM.
Road Captain
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 658
Likes: 2
From: Aldergrove BC, Canada
Ah! the old cost of production conundrum---gov't support and money is usually what drives the energy alternatives, in the late 80's Oil Shale was all the rage----huge quantities in Colorado? but there was not enough "cheap" water to make the steam required for extraction.
BUT I bet some day when oil goes back over $100.00 a bbl, it will come up on the radar again.
BUT I bet some day when oil goes back over $100.00 a bbl, it will come up on the radar again.
Thread Starter
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Club Member
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 145,895
Likes: 821
From: 40 miles Northeast of Indy..
Even that station has always been the same price.. No discount for it with Ethanol here! The new ones with it didn't lower there price either. All stations in our town are within .01 of each other..
Last night I found Marathon and one other local station has it without Ethanol.
Even if it sold at .10 cents less per gallon, which is a 5% savings, we will use more fuel (OIL) because of the overall 10-15% less mileage, which wipes out any advantage of going to it in the first place.
I am not just looking at the price or trying to save cost.
Point is ts supposed to help us be less Dependant on foreign oil and it really ends up making us use more..
Looks like the oil company's win again with more profit.
Last edited by oct1949; Sep 1, 2009 at 11:36 PM.
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Cruiser
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 199
Likes: 0
From: Pasadena,MD
I hate all of the "go green" crap such as the ethanol in our gas but I do hope they find a way to make ethanol cheaply because I happen to love the internal combustion engine and can't imagine riding an electric bike! I believe hemp is the answer for cheap ethanol but politically not .