Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on January 20, 2004 03:04 AM
>You know that always made we wonder. Here we are in North America, or even Russia with oodles of LAND that could be used for farming corn. We could produce so much methanol that we would be easily self sufficient.
There is no technical reason to continue using gasoline. Most cars on the road today are methanol-ready.
Methanol currently costs ~ $2.50 a gallon. Depending how you count the beans, that's probably cheaper than processed gasoline due to the tax subsudies lavished on oil companies (which don't come from gas taxes.. they're hiddin in the general fund taxes to discourage conservation).
There are other benefits also such as supporting family farmers instead of King Fahd. Less tax dollars being sent to Israel defense ($10bn US each year), and a reduced need for borrowing against the next president's budget to prop up the US military in the face of huge defecits.
These are powerful interests. Never mind political PAC money from Big Oil, just count how many of Television's advertisements are from Detroit or are oil related. US news is wholly dependent on the status quo. It's truly sad if you think about it... this is both an economic and national security issue, and no one is mentioning it.
Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux help
Re:I always wondered about Methanol...
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on January 20, 2004 03:04 AMThere is no technical reason to continue using gasoline. Most cars on the road today are methanol-ready.
Methanol currently costs ~ $2.50 a gallon. Depending how you count the beans, that's probably cheaper than processed gasoline due to the tax subsudies lavished on oil companies (which don't come from gas taxes.. they're hiddin in the general fund taxes to discourage conservation).
There are other benefits also such as supporting family farmers instead of King Fahd. Less tax dollars being sent to Israel defense ($10bn US each year), and a reduced need for borrowing against the next president's budget to prop up the US military in the face of huge defecits.
These are powerful interests. Never mind political PAC money from Big Oil, just count how many of Television's advertisements are from Detroit or are oil related. US news is wholly dependent on the status quo. It's truly sad if you think about it... this is both an economic and national security issue, and no one is mentioning it.
#