Replies

How Will the U.S. Feed the Ethanol Appetite?

buy it from Brazil

Since we already produce more ethanol than Brazil, it is going to be hard for them to meet our growing need. They will try no doubt, but Brazil government also just raised the minimum ethanol content in their gasoline to 23%.

That would certainly be a market solution.

I have family in Brasil and have seen the ethanol industry there grow up and mature since the seventies. They have cleared a lot of land for sugar cane cultivation in order to feed their distilleries. The alcohol cars do not have quite the performance the gasoline cars have, but they get the job done. I would suspect the massive clearance of native habitats would disturb the Eco-PC types who also always decry the use of fossil fuels. It is, however, in every sense a mature industry in Brasil.

Last time I was there, I met a cab driver who had the ultimate flex-fuel vehicle. He could fill the tank with gasoline or alcohol or any combination of the two, depending on which was cheaper at the moment. He also had a compressed natural gas tank in the back. The performance was poor on CNG, but it was way cheaper than either gasoline or alcohol. He ran the car on CNG on flat land and used gasoline or alcohol in the hills. The best part is he could switch on the fly. I understand the CNG goes for the equivalent of about $1.30 a gallon (I assume that means you can travel the same distance one gallon of gasoline would carry you for $1.30). Not many stations had CNG, though. I read recently that there is a system for slow refueling that is available for home use in the United States (it takes 18 hours rather than the few minutes it would take at a compressor-equipped CNG station).

I like the idea of choosing among three different fuels according to the lowest price at the moment. That would be an even better market-based solution to high gasoline prices.