Saying that some new restriction or requirement is going to fix anything is exactly like saying that throwing more tax money into the WA DC school system will improve student performance. That’s what created the problem, and doing more of it will therefore make it worse.

OK? (he said as we sat on billions of barrels of oil that can’t be drilled and tapped due to government restrictions, while the Chinese drilled in the Gulf of Mexico, while the U.S. started using food as fuel by government mandate, driving up the cost of food for the starving poor around the world)

Free markets feed. Socialism kills. How many thousands of times must we fail to learn that simple lesson?

At the same time, you also make another trade off; Subsidize terrorists, or give up your meals.

I like the idea of drilling our own oil.

When it doesn’t make sense to continue, that’s when. There’s no requirement that you be an absolutist, you know. Sometimes it makes sense to enforce the common good, and sometimes it doesn’t. So you support it when it makes sense and oppose it when it doesn’t. Seems simple enough to me.

In any case, until we can get away from corn and soy ethanol, both of which are horribly inefficient and drive up food prices, flex fuel doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Diesel and steam (6-cycle) cycle IC engines are the way to go – I’ll blog more on that tomorrow if I have time on Schroedinger’s Blog.

One parting word: TURBOS!!!!!!

And do the hippies need to be dead? I really don’t have an issue with the DEAD ones….

While neither moral or legal, the science works.

1 metric ton of dead hippies can be converted to 80 gallons of biodiesel via heat depolymerization.

Formerly annoying dead hippies are a nearly inexhaustable resource … and if we did exhaust them, people would cheer regardless.

And the hipiies carbon foot print goes to near zero once they stop breathing.

A win win scenario for all.

Then you’ve informed the populace and let the free market run without anyone’s rights getting trampled.

It is that easy.

In Mass its required by law that ALL gas sold be 10% EtOH. I grew up in Maine where the petrol is 100% Texas tea. The Gas guage on my Ranger has always been a little dodgy since I bought it, but if I go off of milage I KNEW EXACTLY how far I could go on a tank of Juice.

Then one afternoon in Mass I found myself walking to a gas station with a Jerry Can. EtOH gas costs AS much, if not more than normal gas, but you can’t drive as far on it.

It SUCKS. Not to mention all the other problems encountered with making it, and its flamability…..

I guess having a car that’s flex fuel doesn’t HURT….but it’ll hurt when you can’t buy an actual tin of real gas a LOT more than not being able to buy a real lightbulb, IMHO….

You would think that when our congress-critters mandate the increase in the use of ethanol, like they have recently, they would also knock off on the sugar import tariffs. After all, if free trade is good, it’s good for everyone, and not just the people who don’t own massive chemical factories used to convert corn into high fructose corn syrup.

I often wonder about chemically converting coal, (which we have gobs of) into feedstock for the refineries. Last I heard (when gas was $1.25/gal) is that it only would be practical when gas stayed consistently above $2/gallon. Well guess what?

Getting back to what the Feds ought to be doing, however, even if you subscribe to the theory that the fed-goons ought to only be just delivering the mail and defending the borders, then i can still see giving corporations tax breaks to build E85 vehicles and building new refineries (hopefully not sticking those refineries only around the Mississippi gulf area where it could be go down with all the other refineries during another hurricane) under the umbrella of homeland defense.

Forcing them to build cars a certain way, without very good reasons, just rubs me the wrong way too.

So, I’m really torn. I mean, if I buy this collective good nonsense this one time, when does it stop?

Yep! The show “South Park” presented an episode with an opinion I share on that “dilemma”.

Got a whine glass?

I’ve been writing bits about synthetic fuels, check it out if you’re interested.
http://mokofd.blogspot.com/