Yes, post-1984 cars particularly suffer, because the oxygen sensor on the exhaust “tells” the computer to enrichen the mixture (because ethanol is an oxygenate). Plus, ethanol has fewer BTU per gallon, so even 10% ethanol causes folks to push the go-pedal harder to get their expected performance, though I think people do this subconsciously.

Ethanol will prove to be one of the biggest mistakes the world has ever seen.

We should not starve people so we can drive SUVs, oversized trucks and powerful cars.

Anyone saying “oh it’s the oil which is causing the food crisis” is being disengenious. Corn being planted in massive quantities to make ethanol is displacing other crops, which raises food prices. It’s not brain surgery to figure this out…

Glad to see Canada following Europe in smartening up on this situation, hope America follows soon.

The same UN that was screaming AGW and we need biofuels is now declaring they will fix the food shortage. The UN has become such a corrupt useless organization mirroring most of the third world governments that run it.

And in the USA last year they used about 25% of the corn crop to replace about 5% of the gasoline. (around 7 billion gallons of ethanol and a total gas consumption around 150 billion gallons) And the USA corn crop is huge, by far the largest in the world. How ‘experts’ could study this and decide it was a good idea makes no sense. The ethanol scam was really put in place to provide under the table subsidies to agriculture and placate the Global Warming crowd.

There are many places in the US where 10% ethanol is the norm now. Where I live, it appears that only Exxon (Esso) is doing this, so I’m hoping the fad doesn’t spread.

Honestly, I think Exxon is only doing it because it lets them advertise a few cents lower on the price to lure the suckers in, hoping they don’t know what the “10% ethanol” placard means on the pump. Shameful.

I spoke to a few people and checked my figures and the general conclusion is that the mpg on cars aren’t as good as they used to be, prior to the biofuel law. If this is the case (and I’m pretty sure it is) then I can’t see ANY benefit here.

Whatever you gain in CO2 reduction, you’ll gain in refineries refining more petrol because mpg’s are falling. Not to mention, putting pressure on world food prices, displacing people to make way for arable farmland, etc.

Too bad he crossed the floor years ago and now finds himself stuck in Opposition.

That said, biofuels is nowhere near as accelerated in Canada as in the U.S.

There are few E85 stations in Canada, mostly in the east.

I keep hearing that the key factors behind both food and energy increases are “demand in emerging markets”…but last time I checked, it’s not like someone just flipped a switch in China and India 12 months ago. This change is far more of a shock than a transition.