The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 304
take into account that ethanol fuels could be used to run the equipment at a
lower cost and with less pollution than gasoline or diesel.
Further, any claims that ethanol (alcohol) can cause damage to vehicle engines
is totally false. Virtually any modern vehicle (1990 to present) can use a gasoline-ethanol blend of proportionately high levels of alcohol with no problem,
even if they are not officially “flex-fuel” vehicles. For those modern vehicles that
might have a problem with e85 or higher alcohol, an inexpensive easy-to-install
device renders the vehicle capable of running 100% alcohol. Older vehicles,
after being fitted with fuel injectors and replacing any rubber that is not tolerant
of ethanol, can also function at full capability without any damage done to the
engine. Ethanol cleans engines, it does not harm them.
GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES
The argument against using government subsidies to increase the production
capacity of ethanol and to encourage the use of it is so ridiculously puerile that
it’s amazing that anyone with more than a fifth-grade education would use it,
regardless of where on the political spectrum they may fall.
I guess the only reason for doing so is that most politicians and cited analysts
like you know that the general public will never research an issue and challenge
such egregiously stupid statements as “If ethanol made a lot of sense it wouldn’t
need to be subsidized?” By the way, if this stupid statement sounds familiar to
you it’s because it’s what you said to John Stossel. You may have thought you
were safe from rebuke, but “tag, you’re it!”
In any event, there is very little that would have gotten accomplished in America
(to the good and bad) if it were not for government subsidies, incentives, allotments, and protectionist laws and taxes. No energy sector was developed and
in continuous play without substantial subsidies, including the construction of
hydroelectric dams, nuclear plants, and oil exploration and refineries. This is as
true today as it was when the first pools of petroleum oil were tapped in Pennsylvania in the 1850s.
Products made from petroleum oil, such as kerosene, would have never come
into popular use for in-home heating and lighting were it not for onerous taxes
placed upon alcohol. Despite the smell and harmful fumes of kerosene, consumers were driven to it because its cost was so much lower than alcohol: kerosene production was taxed at just 10 cents per gallon while ethanol was taxed
at more than $2 per gallon. As the new petroleum oil companies prospered and
grew they were able to buy the political support they needed to protect their
