The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 450
Then Mr. Weinstein goes to the banal bromide that "research has shown that
(ethanol-gasoline) blends above 10% can damage car engines and fuel systems for millions of vehicles on the road today." On the contrary, Doctor, research has shown that the vast overwhelming majority of vehicles on the road
today are unharmed by ethanol-gasoline blends above 10%. And global onroad use of higher ethanol-gasoline blends has proven the research to be correct. What's more, damage that could be done to the relatively minor number of
vehicles that are not ethanol compatible can be overcome with minor parts replacements that can be accomplished during routine maintenance. And, to top
it all off, no one - not even me - has suggested that we remove ethanol-free
gasoline from the marketplace, so for them what can afford to own a beautiful
classic/antique car that rarely gets used, they will always have a fuel they are
more comfortable with.
Mr. Weinstein moves on to hiding behind the newly-minted lies that ethanol is
having a limited effect on greenhouse gas emissions. This absurd claim is as
easily defeated as simply looking upwards. That's right, go to any large city in
America that suffered from heavy smog, and look up. That blue you see on a
cloudless day is the sky. If you land at LAX Airport and look north on a cloudless
day you will see something that looks like mountains. They are mountains. Before the mid-1990's you would very, very rarely ever see the Hollywood Hills.
To clarify this issue, in order for the reduced benefit claims to be leveled against
ethanol a concoction of irrelevant rationales has to be assumed. An example of
the attempt to denigrate ethanol was the report released in mid-August by another quack professor, John DeCicco. Although DeCicco's August claims were
nothing new for him (he's made the same claims earlier), he was again soundly
rebutted by reports, such as those from MichBio and the University of Illinois at
Chicago. The concoction of irrelevant rationales needed to vilify ethanol includes everything involved before, during, and after production of ethanol. But
if you're going to add in everything and anything related to ethanol in order to
undermine its effectiveness in reducing greenhouse gases, then you have to do
the same to gasoline and petroleum diesel by adding in anything and everything
related to its production - and this would have to include all the wars, all the
protections of shipping, all the manufacture of war materiel, all the environmental disasters, and all the acts of terrorism.
Why does a man with so many academic accomplishments not readily know
and understand this?
Mr. Weinstein next resorts to criticizing ethanol for causing water and food
prices to rise. He utilizes a ridiculous numerical figure for how much water is
