There have been several threads on this over the past few years. A few reports that triggered them were by the negative reports that surfaced in the news and tabloids that claimed the E-85 alternative fuels were not efficient, damaging to the environment and even one that recently claimed if we used E-85 the world would starve to death. 
I have always suspected these reports, regardless of their published author were not only bogus but also instigated by the petroleum industry to sequester this competitive transportation fuel source. As farm grown renewable resource vs. non-renewable wells. In some cases these reports were later found to just that fakes with huge flaws hardly representative of the institutions that released them such as Princton and other highly respected organizations. In my mind these reports have tarnished the good name of these institutuions.
I saw this report published by the EPA that opens up the truth behind our current situation with the public opinion of FFV and E-85. IT reports and confirms two of my own suspicions, one market and the other technical.
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/presentations/epa-fev-isaf-no55.pdf
I found it especially interesting that they admit that the current price at the pumps of E-85 is largely fixed by the present price of gasoline in a disproportionate amount. ( What I mean by this is that the price of E-85 increased as did Gasoline, not 15% of what gasoline did as would be dictated by the blend ratio. )
The other, technical, was that with my limited understanding of how engines worked, that the present design of an engine is first optimized by using gasoline, and with FFV it is compromised to "allow" the use of E-85 but still a gasoline engine. The test that the EPA did was to build an engine that was modified and optimized for alcohol, not gasoline. In their results it showed that this design resulted in an engine that ran at 33% more efficient than gasoline, plus emitted much less exhaust pollutants than gasoline.
Now getting back to the market, it was also stated that the production and sale of FFV cars and trucks for consumer transportation far exceeded the growth of the availability of E-85. This shows that there are far more cars today that are capable of E-85 use than are burning it due to lack of availability and in areas where available such as the midwest, the price is kept artificially high so as to be more cost per gallon equal to gasoline.
Is this a conspiracy? Well you all can decide for yourselves but I tend to believe it is. A conspiracy among all the oil and gasoline producing companies in the world. Plus our own lawmakers who are in control of preventing the enacting of laws that would give incentive to make E-85 distribution more in line with the vehicles that can use it. Plus insure there is a proper cost spread that is more in line with actual costs of the product. The last part I'm a bit nervous about because I really don't believe in cost controls. However, I would be willing to vote for a national referendum that would make transportation fuels, all of them a federally regulated commodity because as was stated, our national security is at risk because it is not. The Feds regulate alcohol now for drinking but something like transportation it does not.
I have always suspected these reports, regardless of their published author were not only bogus but also instigated by the petroleum industry to sequester this competitive transportation fuel source. As farm grown renewable resource vs. non-renewable wells. In some cases these reports were later found to just that fakes with huge flaws hardly representative of the institutions that released them such as Princton and other highly respected organizations. In my mind these reports have tarnished the good name of these institutuions. I saw this report published by the EPA that opens up the truth behind our current situation with the public opinion of FFV and E-85. IT reports and confirms two of my own suspicions, one market and the other technical.
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/presentations/epa-fev-isaf-no55.pdf
I found it especially interesting that they admit that the current price at the pumps of E-85 is largely fixed by the present price of gasoline in a disproportionate amount. ( What I mean by this is that the price of E-85 increased as did Gasoline, not 15% of what gasoline did as would be dictated by the blend ratio. )
The other, technical, was that with my limited understanding of how engines worked, that the present design of an engine is first optimized by using gasoline, and with FFV it is compromised to "allow" the use of E-85 but still a gasoline engine. The test that the EPA did was to build an engine that was modified and optimized for alcohol, not gasoline. In their results it showed that this design resulted in an engine that ran at 33% more efficient than gasoline, plus emitted much less exhaust pollutants than gasoline.
Now getting back to the market, it was also stated that the production and sale of FFV cars and trucks for consumer transportation far exceeded the growth of the availability of E-85. This shows that there are far more cars today that are capable of E-85 use than are burning it due to lack of availability and in areas where available such as the midwest, the price is kept artificially high so as to be more cost per gallon equal to gasoline.
Is this a conspiracy? Well you all can decide for yourselves but I tend to believe it is. A conspiracy among all the oil and gasoline producing companies in the world. Plus our own lawmakers who are in control of preventing the enacting of laws that would give incentive to make E-85 distribution more in line with the vehicles that can use it. Plus insure there is a proper cost spread that is more in line with actual costs of the product. The last part I'm a bit nervous about because I really don't believe in cost controls. However, I would be willing to vote for a national referendum that would make transportation fuels, all of them a federally regulated commodity because as was stated, our national security is at risk because it is not. The Feds regulate alcohol now for drinking but something like transportation it does not.
