The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 253
and many other factors have done that. All ethanol does is keep the price of
corn higher to pacify the National Farmers Organization and their lobbyists. It's
been known for decades that ethanol is bad for a manifold of reasons.
Reply from MARC:
Bill, I love your comments. You made my day. It shows just how ignorant ethanol opponents are. In just a few words you made the case for ethanol.
There would be no unleaded gasoline if it wasn't for ethanol. Tetraethyl lead
was added to gasoline in order to eliminate engine knock. The previous way to
eliminate knock was to put ethanol in gasoline. Leaded gasoline was the invention of GM and the oil industry to duplicate the results of ethanol-gasoline
blends. Leaded gasoline was preferable to GM and the oil industry because
they could patent the formula and make billions of dollars.
When the oil industry and automobile industry were faced with the requirements
to eliminate harmful emissions they tried using MTBE in place of ethanol. MTBE
did eliminate knock, but it did little to clean the air (MTBE is a byproduct of
petroleum oil). In addition, MTBE is nearly as poisonous as Tetraethyl-Lead, so
it was discontinued.
The mandate to use ethanol in blends came after the advent of catalytic converters and some improvements in engine design. However, the effect on air
quality during the MTBE was slight. The big jump in cleaning the air came after
using ethanol.
You also wrote that improvements in the air were a result of better emission
controls and government standards. You're making a silly semantic argument.
The controls brought to play were to eliminate as much as possible fuels that
created too much airborne residue. Government standards, per se, didn't clean
the air - the air didn't say "Oh we have to clean up because the government
says we have to." Enhanced emission control is due to using ethanol. Government standards were met because of ethanol use.
It is possible to buy ethanol-free gasoline (E0). And modern ethanol-free gasoline does eliminate knock by using other additives called aromatics. These primary aromatics are called benzene and toluene and they are petroleum oil byproducts, not unlike MTBE. They stink, literally. They are more expensive than
