E85 Boondoggle of the Day: National Alternative Fuel Odyssey Day
By Robert FaragoSeptember 29, 2008 - 356 views
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t include the name of a Honda minivan in the title of an event designed to promote E85. For one thing, the Odyssey can’t run on corn juice. For another, any student of Greek literature will tell you that the most famous of all Odysseys wasn’t the most efficient or sucessful of journeys for the majority of those involved. And God knows there’s a major intersection between potential E85 users and Greek scholars. I digress. This year’s biennial National Alternative Fuel Odyssey Day (NAFOD) is set for October third, when E85 stations around the country will bribe FlexFuel enabled consumers with prices low enough to make them forget (or remain oblivious to) the fact that corn juice is a far less energy-intensive fuel than drivers’ normal brew. And who’s behind this eco-boondoggle? Well, the org is headquartered at West Virginia University, but the website’s cagey about its benefactors. In North Dakota, domesticfuel.com reveals it’s “Cenex, Blue Flint Ethanol, General Motors Corporation, North Dakota Corn Growers Association, North Dakota Department of Commerce, North Dakota Ethanol Producers Association, National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, US Department of Energy-Clean Cities and the American Lung Association of North Dakota.” Why do I think my taxes are in there, somewhere?
Posted in E85 | News Blog | 11 comments 
E85 Boondoggle of the Day: DOE Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Cans Corn
By Robert FaragoSeptember 25, 2008 - 516 views
John Mizroch is, of course, pro-E85 to a fault. According to FarmWeek, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy told participants at a Indianapolis renewable energy conference that the nine billion gallons of ethanol “brought online to date” have saved consumers nationwide a “not-insignificant” 25 cents in per-gallon gasoline costs. And that’s just for starters. “I don’t personally believe it [corn-based ethanol] has added significantly to the price of food commodities. I think our industry could sustain up to the limits of the RFS.” (For those of you who don’t keep track of Uncle Sam’s every market distortion, that’s the federally-mandated 21b gallons of bio-fuels by 2022 Renewable Fuel Standard.) Yes, BUT– Mizroch admitted that DOE research now focuses on emerging fuel feedstocks, with “virtually no work in corn ethanol.” In other words, you got the ball rolling farmer John. We’ll take it from here. “Many of the players in the current industry are critical to the success of the future cellulosic, non-foodstock industry,” Mizroch asserted to FarmWeek. But not all or even most, we note. Well, not until the farm lobby gets involved, anyway.
Posted in E85 | News Blog | 8 comments
E85 Boondoggle of the Day: Ethanol Losing the Blogging Wars
By Edward NiedermeyerSeptember 23, 2008 - 717 views
Dave Niles over at the Ethanol Producer Magazine’s Talking Stock, I mean Taking Stalks, I mean Taking Stock blog reports an E85 industry milestone: their 200th “commercial scale” production facility. OK, it’s not actually here yet. In fact, the corn-based ethanol industry is in the middle of a huge E85 glut, they’ve lost the PR war on the “food for fuel” debate (where even GM’s FlexFuel ads are talking-up [theoretical] cellulosic supplies), new facilities are on hold and planning permission for future plants faces stiff not to say stifling local opposition. To be fair, Niles does mention one of those dark clouds: “Eight small-scale plants remain offline primarily due to market conditions.”And while we’re blogging stalks, I mean stalking blogs, I mean talking blogs, J.D. Power and Associates Web Intelligence Division’s surveyed some 40m blog posts over the last six months (using the algorithm method). “The topics of ethanol and biofuels generate lower amounts of positive sentiment than other forms of alternative energy.” But that’s OK because “consumers indicate that they are skeptical of marketing efforts by oil companies that promote their efforts to pursue green and renewable energy sources.”
Posted in E85 | News Blog | 26 comments
E85/CNG/Hydrogen Fuel Cell Boondoggle Of The Day: Mandatory Pumps for Big Oil Gas Stations
By Richard ChenSeptember 17, 2008 - 605 views
Original Autoblogger Reverend David Thomas over at Cars.com has been combing through HR 6899 (warning: 290 page pdf), a Democratic-sponsored energy bill passed last night by the House of Representatives. Included in the text: provisions for limited offshore and Alaskan drilling and oil shale field exploitation exploration. A provision starting on page 177 requires that gas stations owned by Big Oil companies each have at least one alternative fuel pump by 2018. There’s a carrot ($50k tax-credit) and stick ($100k penalty) for each station. Alt-fuels are defined as E85 (or even more ethanol), compressed natural gas (CNG), diesel (of at least 20 percent bio or other renewable source) and hydrogen. So, where to begin with this lobbyist and re-election friendly clause? We’ve already stated the reluctance of independent chains to fork out the $50k cost of installing E85 pumps. CNG and hydrogen face huge chicken-and-egg problems: you want to buy or lease a new vehicle right now? (How much above MSRP?) Honda will produce just 1500 CNG-inhaling Civic GX’s for MY2009, and forget about getting a Clarity FCX unless you already own won a pair of Golden Globes. Anyhow, ExxonMobil is planning to get out of the gas station business because it’s not profitable enough. If the bill becomes law, don’t be surprised if the other majors follow suit to avoid having to fork out millions. Big if: the bill has yet to be voted on by the Senate. President Bush has promised a veto in the bill’s current form, and it passed the House by a less than a 60 percent (veto-proof) majority.
Posted in E85 | Future Vehicles | News Blog | Politics | 9 comments
E85 Boondoggle of the Day: EU Cuts Biofuel Goals, Blocks U.S. Corn juice
By Edward NiedermeyerSeptember 13, 2008 - 835 views
Foodstock-based, first-gen biofuels are becoming increasingly unpopular. And so the European Union (EU) has cut– er, “modified” biofuel goals. Last year, the EU committed to increasing biofuel transport usage to ten percent by 2020. The International Herald-Tribune reports that the goal has been ratified, but a number of caveats have been added. The new plan calls for five percent of transport fuels to be derived from renewable sources by 2015, with at least a fifth of that amount from “new alternatives that do not compete with food production.” When biofuel usage hits ten percent in 2020, 40 percent of that amount will have to come from second-gen, non-foodstock fuels. That goal will be reviewed in 2014. Of course, these plans are worrying biofuel producers; they’re stepping-up a publicity campaign warning that “alternatives to biofuels like hydrogen and electricity - while they might help to reduce tailpipe pollution - still would require burning of fossil fuels to manufacture.” European biofuel producers are worried about the threat of American imports. U.S. farmers receive significant subsidies and incentives that make European exportation particularly appealing. A formal EU investigation is underway, considering punitive tariffs against American E85– unless the U.S. government removes biofuel incentives. Good luck with that.
The International Herald Tribune »
Posted in E85 | News Blog | 9 comments
E85 Boondoggle of the Day: Obama Backs Off Corn-Based E85, Feds Don’t
By Robert FaragoSeptember 12, 2008 - 1,022 views
Bloomberg has a tidy little article summing up the current state of play in the corn ethanol industry: game called on account of brain. Yes, not only are people beginning to realize that the “food for fuel” industry has its ethical “limitations” (food riots and rising prices at the supermarket will do that to a concept), but the realities of economics are giving gung-ho investors pause. As in, why should we put money into this boondoggle when there’s already tens of millions of gallons more production capacity than demand? (So much that E85 producers can’t get cheap corn, either.) The result: the end of the corn-based ethanol industry’s boom. And a big PR switch from “no one ever died defending a corn field” to talking about [non-existent] cellulosic-based E85. The Bloomberg piece ends with the revelation that even ADM’s man (gotta love that jet) is backing away from corn juice. “Asked whether Obama may reduce his support for corn-based ethanol as president, spokesman Tommy Vietor referred to an April speech in Indiana: ‘We have to recognize that corn-based ethanol is a transitional technology,” the candidate said then.” Oh wait… “An energy bill introduced by House Democrats Thursday would require all gas stations to add one alternative fuel E85 pump, a fuel of 85 percent ethanol,” The Detroit News reports. “Currently, less than 2,000 of the nation’s 185,000 gas stations have an E85 pump.” And why is that, then?
Posted in E85 | News Blog | 13 comments
E85 Boondoggle of the Day: HUMMER H2 for You?
By Robert FaragoSeptember 11, 2008 - 966 views
No, obviously. Nor anyone else, apparently. Now that GM is spending more time trying to sell the HUMMER brand than the HUMMER brand’s products, there’s not much on the product news front. But there is something. “The iconic HUMMER H2 is known for going where no other four wheel drive will venture,” a GM press release proclaims [via Huliq News]. “The model breaks new boundaries for 2009 with standard E85 Flexpower capability on every H2 sold, making it the only model of its kind with can run on E85 ethanol.” Now there’s a claim. And just in case you thought boasting that your planet-killer poster child can run on a corn-based bio-fuel boondoggle that even tree-hugger’s have scorned, GM PR wants you to know… nothing much. About that, anyway. “Ethanol is an alcohol which can be distilled from a number of sources, ranging from renewable crops such as sugar cane, to biomass or waste materials. Particular emphasis is being paid to the need to utilize sources that do not affect the price of third-world food commodities. For example, GM is the leading automotive investor in developing E85 ethanol made from waste wood collected as part of forest wildfire prevention programmes. Undergrowth and dead trees that would otherwise be burned are converted into the ethanol.” Oh, OK, then. But GM is now trying to play-up the “E85 is cleaner for the air” arguement, which has never been properly verified. “In addition to reducing dependence on non-renewable petroleum resources, E85 ethanol helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can reduce smog-forming carbon exhaust emissions.” H2 reucing greenhouse gasses? Talk about beating a dead horse.
Posted in E85 | News Blog | 5 comments
E85 Boondoggle of the Day: E20
By Robert FaragoSeptember 5, 2008 - 1,230 views
Hey! Here’s an idea! While we wait for the whole country to switch to E85 (and Mexicans to renew their tortilla riots), let’s double the percentage of ethanol in “normal” U.S. gasoline from 10 percent (E10) to twenty percent (E20). Sounds great! You know; if you’re an ethanol producer. And that’s as good a description as any for the majority of the people who read Ethanol Producer (EP) magazine. In the none-too-subtly titled “Overcoming E20’s Objections,” the September issue of that august journal identifies ground zero in the campaign to increase gasoline’s ethanol content by 100 percent. “In 2005, Minnesota passed unprecedented legislation requiring that the state’s fuel consist of at least 20 percent ethanol by 2013. The state already enforces an E10 mandate and is home to more than 300 E85 fueling stations. To raise total fuel consumption to a level of 20 percent, the state has two choices—consume enough E85 to total 20 percent of all fuel consumed or convince the U.S. EPA to grant a waiver to the Clean Air Act and allow E20 to be used in all gasoline.” Can you guess which way they’re going? To that end, The Gopher (It) state is already researching E20’s effects on ethanol industry profits auto engines. To scribe Kris Bevill’s credit, problems are identified– plastic corrosion, catalytic converter temperature increases, lost mpgs– before the expected coat of gloss is applied. Bottom line? “As far as the national initiative is concerned, we’ve started the ball rolling in that direction,” “marketing specialist” for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture Mark Groschen told EP. “If it didn’t happen until 2015, well that would still be progress wouldn’t it? If we got 15 percent instead of 20 percent—15 is more than 10. We’re just trying to make progress.”
Posted in E85 | News Blog | 35 comments
Rush Limbaugh’s GM Pimpatorial
By Robert FaragoSeptember 4, 2008 - 2,599 views
“Meanwhile, American business is taking seriously your concern about the cost of gasoline. General Motors is one of our sponsors. We are proud and honored that they are a sponsor of this program.
Everybody’s out there flapping their gums — Thomas Friedman, all these other people who don’t know what they’re talking about. General Motors is doing things, designing terrific cars, crossovers, trucks, SUVs, that use alternative fuels, different ways to power their vehicles. They even have the Escalade hybrid out there now to go along with the Tahoe hybrid, and they’re working on all kinds of different technologies that will help you use less gasoline. One of the alternatives they’re using is flex-fuel cars that use biofuels like ethanol if you want them, and they’re making them if you want them. They have four million of these flex-fuel vehicles on the road, across the globe, and they’re committed to building even more. GM has more modeled that are capable of running on E85 ethanol than any other manufacturer. The Buick Lucerne — that’s the one we’re getting next to tool around here — is one of the cars running on E85. General Motors, they respond to your concerns. They don’t tell you you’re stupid. You can see all their cars at RushLimbaugh.com. “
Posted in E85 | Hybrid | Media | News Blog | 91 comments
E85 Boondoggle of the Day: Or Not?
By Edward NiedermeyerSeptember 4, 2008 - 471 views
As much as we criticize ethanol around these parts, we all use it. E10 is a fact of life, thanks to ethanol’s anti-knock properties and lack of groundwater contamination lawsuits. So what if ethanol were used more intelligently as an additive, instead of being hawked as an alt-fuel? PickupTrucks.com has news that Ford’s second-generation EcoBoost turbocharged engines could go that very route. Although the first round of EcoBoost engines aren’t even on sale yet, the second generation is being developed under the codename “Bobcat.” These new engines are said to feature “ethanol boost technology,” not-so-coincidentally developed by Ethanol Boosting Systems of Cambridge, MA. In essence, a variable ethanol direct-injection system allows turbocharged engines to operate at a higher compression ratio. This means more power and up to 15 percent better efficiency than a first-gen EcoBoost engine. Plus, you only have to top-up on ethanol every month or so. With talk of getting 500 hp and 700 lb-ft from a 5.0 turbo-V8, developers are positioning the Bobcat as big-pickup diesel competition. And Ford is already saying Bobcat engines will be a $1,100 option (give or take), which compares well to diesel’s $5k premium. But don’t start looking for the Bobcat option box any time soon. “The first Bobcat test engines may be built before the end of the year, but they have not received final approval for production,” according to PickupTrucks’ “industry sources.”
Posted in Alternative Energy | E85 | Fuel Economy | News Blog | 10 comments
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