EPA wants to increase ethanol to 15%

[Fred H.]

Please repost this info on every motorcycle or car forum you can find.

You can help stop this. We need folks to tell the federal government to get its fingers out of our gas.

They are taking inputs for a very short time only and there is only a small window of opportunity for us to voice our opinions.

https://www.motorists.org/blog/epa-consider...ol-limit-to-15/

The EPA has until Dec. 1 to make a decision and is requesting comments from the public. You can find the full EPA notice here. https://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-AIR/2009/A...ay-21/a9115.htm

A poster in the forums at VWVortex has organized the information you need to comment on this proposal below:

Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA–HQ– OAR–2009–0211, by one of the following methods:

Web:

Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments.

https://www.regulations.gov/

E-mail:

[email protected]

Fax:

(202) 566–1741

Mail:

Please include a total of two copies.

Air and Radiation Docket

Docket ID No. EPA–HQ–OAR–2009– 0211

Environmental Protection Agency

Mailcode: 6102T

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20460.

 

[Capt. Bob]

Well I put in my 2 cents but I gotta believe (after reading 6 pages of comments) that there are a lot of corn farmers out there.

 

[radman]

Impossible-only way I see to do it is to attach to someone elses comment. Like all things gov, ****** impossible. :angry: In any case, a big +83 to the Cap'ns comment-the greenies are gonna slam this down our throats too.

 

[DaveInMn]

Submitted mine. Thx for the heads up.

It's not great (non-English major), but if anybody wants a copy to use as a template for theirs, let me know....

 

[johnny80s]

Why don't we want ethanol in our gas? What are the ill effects?

 

[FJRay]

Corn should be used for food or whiskey. It doesn't make any sense to burn up our food stocks on a product that I understand costs more to make than gas.

 

[johnny80s]

Corn should be used for food or whiskey. It doesn't make any sense to burn up our food stocks on a product that I understand costs more to make than gas.

Interesting I did not know that. I thought like everyone that ethanol was going to be a savior for high gas prices like in Brazil.

Here is an article I found. Clicky

 

[Big Sky]

I've been meaning to post, but almost feared a flaming. Anyway, I believe the "gasahol" they're selling here is 10 percent ethanol. As soon as the stickers went on the pumps (last summer), my gas mileage fell 10 percent, in both my truck and the FJR. Fresh plugs, air filters, fuel system cleaner etc. made no difference. I noticed when I was down south earlier this month (NM & AZ), and was able to fuel with pure gasoline, the mileage jumped back up 10 percent (44-46 mpg on the Feej). I know many will disagree on a mileage reduction this substantial, but it is what I see and have measured. In this case, a 10 percent decline in mileage would translate into zero environmental benefits and consumer benefits; just beau coup benefits for corn growers who have a very strong lobby and many seats in the Senate and House.

My 2¢.

 

[SouthernCruizer]

The boating industry is also fighting this ethanol increase bill. If you're a boater and want to sign the petition, you can go to www.boattest.com and link to that site.

 

[Phugedaboudet]

Yeah, nothing like needing to burn even more fuel to get the same energy you used to get. Producing more emissions and costing more money. And this is the same government a lot of people want to trust universal health care to?

I've been meaning to post, but almost feared a flaming. Anyway, I believe the "gasahol" they're selling here is 10 percent ethanol. As soon as the stickers went on the pumps (last summer), my gas mileage fell 10 percent, in both my truck and the FJR. Fresh plugs, air filters, fuel system cleaner etc. made no difference. I noticed when I was down south earlier this month (NM & AZ), and was able to fuel with pure gasoline, the mileage jumped back up 10 percent (44-46 mpg on the Feej). I know many will disagree on a mileage reduction this substantial, but it is what I see and have measured. In this case, a 10 percent decline in mileage would translate into zero environmental benefits and consumer benefits; just beau coup benefits for corn growers who have a very strong lobby and many seats in the Senate and House.
My 2¢.

 

[Ignacio]

And this is the same government a lot of people want to trust universal health care to?

Please keep this thread FJR and motorcycle specific when talking politics. We don't need non-motorcycle/FJR political crap diluting the thread.

Thanks.

The Management

 

[happyPuppy]

It is so stupid it is on beyond belief. The octane drops , the MPG drops, the food production use of corn increases ( note your grocery bills) and research it most is made from a grass and to convert it you need coal plants for the most part. My rule of thumb is if it is cost effective they would not need to be subsidized. It is time to go back to looking at Nuclear Power Plants. It has been years since one went online, the technology has improved tremendously and they are used all over the world. They keep going back to 3 mile island, that did what the safety systems were designed to do. It was not the case in the old Soviet Union's disaster.

Sorry if too political on upper paragraph, Yamaha EU on E10

https://www.autobloggreen.com/tag/yamaha+e10/

 

[Bustanut joker]

Hey Howie! Show 'em a picture of your fuel pump I have to believe them corn squeezins had a part in that..

:jester:

 

[radman]

We ran a 20% ethanol test here at the U for a few months. All warm weather-no cold starting testing which should have been part of the set, as our E85 vehicles find that to be the biggest test. The results were unspectacular-keep in mind none of the vehicles tested (100, mix of car/light truck) were Flexi Fuel capable, just run of the mill gas powered. Mileage was down across the board, driveability complaints (hesitation, surging, check engine lights), some poor starting. Certain brand/engine combos were more susceptible to problems than others, the worst being Ford E series vans. The Chevs didn't change much, they crap out all the time anyway though. Mopar seemed most comfortable, strangely the campus only vehicles (all makes) that rarely see a highway fared best.

Edit-oh, and octane goes up with the alky. One way to fully utilize alkys potential is to crank compression, E85 makes a great fuel for 572 Big Blocks that are street driven with 12-1 compression, I built one of them. Ditto a 13-1 Poncho 421(race only however).

 

[Bustanut joker]

Hey Rad what about the big freeze up? Wasn't that an e85 vehicle?

:jester:

 

[jestal]

Well....the octane of ethanol is actually much higher than gasoline, so if you set up your FJR engine with more compression and more spark advance and reprogramed fuel curve it will make much more power on ethanol. An engine that has been optimized for ethanol or E85 will still not match the miles per gallon compared to gasoline but will come much closer than simply pouring E85 into an existing engine.

The viewpoint that seems to be missing is that ethanol is infinitely renewable and can be produced in the long run forever without any petroleum whatsoever. If we could reach that point it would make us completely non-dependent on foreign oil sources to keep our FJR's running.

The current production methods of ethanol (corn based) is simply a steping stone to put the infrastructure in place to eventually produce cellulistic ethanol (wood chips, grass, garbage, etc.) The corn used for ethanol production is not food corn, BTW. It is what is fed to livestock but it is not what tacos are made of....... the price of food jumped because of the high cost of petroleum, not ethanol production. If the delivery trucks and shipping ran on ethanol the price of petroleum would have no impact on food at all.

Who cares what the MPG is anyway if the cost per gallon eventually gets very low. Range will be affected but by then I may have my auxiliary fuel cell for my FJr from SKYWAY to offset the added ethanol I will need to carry.

Look forward to the day where FJRs, cars, the tractors in the fields, etc. are all run by ethanol and no petroleum is required for land based transportation. Making ethanol from grass negates the need to till, plow, etc. thus dramatically reducing the energy required to farm it and gets the food discussion out of the picture.

I am all for nuclear power but strapping a nuclear power plant to an FJR or any other transportation source is not the answer and battery technology just does not exist to store electricity for anything more than a politically correct demo vehicle in the foreseeable future. The physics of batteries just does not come close to the energy density storage capacity of gasoline or ethanol.

When gasoline went to $4.00 or more a gallon the production of ethanol soared and the system was well on the way to significantly reducing our dependence on foreign oil requirements. The Saudis realized this and realized they were about to put themselves out of business with the high oil prices.....so.....the price of oil "magically" dropped back as quickly as it had jumped up. no coincidence. Our foreign oil suppliers realized what few Americans recognize: that necessity is the mother of invention and the foreign oil suppliers were providing all the incentive America needed to eliminate our need for them.

Ethanol is not THE single anwer which is the most important thing to realize. It is, however, a very important piece of the future energy puzzle for the US and the sooner the general public realizes this and embraces the technology the quicker we can get on with life.

 

[radman]

Hey Rad what about the big freeze up? Wasn't that an e85 vehicle?
:jester:

Yeah, but I can't remember what flavor it was. Idled so long the exhaust plugged with ice, in January I believe.

 

[Slappy]

jestal you are incorrect. The price of food jumped because the price of feed corn went up. Cows gotta eat. Chickens gotta eat, pigs gotta eat. Cow food goes up so does milk and hamburger and steak and all the other products that come from cow like basballs and motorcycle gloves and assless chaps. Same goes for chickens and pigs.

You are correct in the fact this is just a stepping stone to a new form of energy. However, it was made quite clear during this last election that the path to the Whitehouse leads directly through Iowa. Is Mr lets build 50 nuclear reactors in the Whitehouse? Nuff said.

If paying $50 for a steak gets our kids out of the sand box earlier and sends these ululating folks back to playing hide the pickle with their goats then I am all for it. Do I like it, absolutely not but until this country gets the huevos to turn the middle east into the worlds largest mirror then we have to do what we have to do and do it now before the next rich pissed of spoiled Saudi child picks up the banner of Mujihadin.

 

[Fred W]

He's alive! And posting!!

Seriously, thanks for your perspective, Jestal. I tend to agree with you.

The problem, of course, will be coaxing all of our existing vehicles through the transition, since none of them were intended to be run on alcohol.