E85 (Ethanol) Sucks!
Two and half years ago I registered the e85sucks.com domain because it was clear to me at that point that the big push for more domestic ethanol production and use was a scam. Now finally the very same people who were pushing it back then have finally come clean that it was a bad idea. Now there have been plenty of people saying this stuff for years.. but it’s nice to know eventually the truth can be recognized.
So lets look at where we stand today. There are many lawsuits pending from various engine makers that even E10 (10% ethanol) is cutting the service life of engines in half. These lawsuits are coming from lawn care equipment manufacturers and others who make boats, airplanes and even cars. I hate to think how this is going to affect the classic cars I like so much. Will they still be on the road in another 20 years? Roughly 1/3 of our corn is currently diverted from food to fuel production which drives up the price of almost all food across the board. Remember general Wesley Clark? He was hired by the corn lobby a few years ago to push for mandated E15 use in our fuel. Apparently that has been money well spent as the EPA ruled in October that it’s ok to use E15 in cars made after 2007… so how old is your car? They are still testing.. but it’s likely we are going to see E15 showing up in pumps before you know it. If E10 requires 1/3 of our corn production.. what happens to food prices when E15 becomes mandated?
In case you didn’t know.. ethanol is corrosive to lots of components in your car. It will eat rubber seals and hoses, plastic fittings and even some metal alloys. That means that if your car isn’t outfitted for it.. you will be replacing engine and fuel system parts much more quickly. For instance.. there has been a rash of fuel pump failures going back several years now blamed on too-rich mixtures of ethanol in current fuel. Average replacement cost.. $1000 and that’s just one component.
The production of ethanol from corn never made sense economically, technically or environmentally and now that an industry has grown up around that lie it’s going to take a long time and a lot of resources to stop it. If I believed in conspiracies I might think they are pushing E15 to get all the ‘old’ cars off the road.. since it’s going to do so much damage to all the non flex-fuel vehicles out there. This could be viewed as an economic stimulus (by political idiots) for the accelerated purchase of new cars and all the required repair work from those suckers who try to keep their old car on the road. While they are at it they might as well start breaking some windows too.