Posted by Congressman John Campbell at 12:00 am on Sep 15, 2010 Comments Off on More On ICE
No, I don’t mean Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but
Internal Combustion Engines. They pretty much all run now on some
refined petroleum product. But what about alternative fuels? There
are a lot of alternatives out there, but each has challenges or
else they would be in wide distribution already.
The most commonly know is E85, which is a blend of 85% ethanol
with 15% gasoline. Cars in Brazil can run on 100% gasoline, 100%
ethanol, or any mixture in between. Ethanol is most efficiently
produced from sugar cane – something Brazil has a lot of. We don’t
have much. So, we tend to produce it from corn. Virtually all
gasoline in the US now contains 10% ethanol. We may be able to go
to 15% without damaging existing cars. We cannot produce enough
ethanol domestically to go entirely to E85 or even E25, and we
currently have a 30% tax on imported ethanol. I have cosponsored a
bill to remove that tax, which was initially intended to protect US
sugar producers, but is now interfering with energy policy. Plus,
ethanol has downsides. In addition to the fact that it results in
more emissions than gasoline, it is corrosive and cannot be used at
too high a… Read More