Honestly, I think the whole thing going on with the EPA is similar to what happened to GM. Government bails them out, and replaces their CEO with a guy who has never run a company. My personal opinion is they want to control what should remain private. Once again, my own opinion. Stalin took control of the farms when he came to power. Control the food supply, control the people. I hope it's not as dark a plan as I think it is. I guess, if he gets reelected, time will tell.

 

I would never say I was in favor of higher ethanol contents. But it is nice of them to take steps to keep it out of small engines. 5% may not be a big deal, but the trend clearly is increasing ethanol percentage.

Doesn't effect me one bit, I drive a Diesel.

Maple syrup would probably clean up my sloppy gearbox.

 

I'd rather see them exploring the resources we have oil wise personally. Cleaner burning, better gas mileage, lower prices for we US consumers. $4 a gallon gas is not helping the limping along economy.

 

I'd rather they spend the resources finding out a way around using oil. Ethanol isn't the way to do it, but that doesn't mean we throw in the towel. Electric cars are becoming more promising, hydraulic hybrids, and diesel electric hybrids can help bring us forward.

But I'm not a fan of drilling for oil. Diesels are pretty responsive to biofuels that are easier to make.

 

Oh, to respond to your thing about Stalin. In my opinion, I'd be glad to watch every CEO lose his position, and all the means of production be held in common. That doesn't mean government. I can't stand government. But that certainly means without CEO's, or any form of authority.

 

Last year I helped my bud build a rig to make bio diesel. He did the research and I helped him build it. It took 3-4 days to build and we used scrap and hardware store parts. Currently he runs a blend in his semi, pick up, bobcat, mini ex, and his shop and home furnace/boiler with no issues & huge savings.

As a builder I know its not all that hard to build a home that actually creates more power than it uses. Iam currently remodeling one such home.

One thing I dont understand is why all of our cars and trucks arnt hybrids. Any part on a truck that turns can produce electricity. Drive shafts, axles, rotors, bearings, pulleys. Why dont we harness this lost energy?

 

That's exactly what I was planning to do when I bought my TDI! Make a little biodiesel reactor. I haven't gotten around to it because of funds, sourcing WVO, and also time... I still enjoy 46 MPG average.

I wish I had a really good explanation for that. There is so much wasted energy in vehicles.

 

hey i gotta defend oil here. fossil fuels for that matter. wind power doesn't contribute all that much to the grid. and sometimes the wind doesn't blow where the windmill farms are located. the sun doesn't always shine either. clouds roll in and such. the electrical stuff still depends much on oil/natural gas/coal. whether the recharge or even building the cars and components themselves. tires, plastic, paint, glass, vinyl, etc...the list goes on and on and it's derived from oil. oil permeates our lives and i'm glad for it! everything from medicines to cell phones to delivering/harvesting groceries to the computer we're typing on. to lower prices at the fuel pump, domestic drilling needs to be done,,,safely and environmentally friendly. YES, it can be done. LAWS of supply and demand are quite simple. OPEC's production wouldn't affect us if we're supplying a lot of our own and not taking much if any of their oil. flood the market with a lot of supply while demand stays the same, folks lower prices just to get rid of it and not keep it in tanks. at least that's the way i'm seeing it.
if you think about the work you get out of one gallon of fuel, whether gasoline or diesel, that's a lot of bang for the buck. you're either moving a small vehicle around doing work like mowing or even joy riding your quad. moving an 8,000 lb truck up and down hills, or tractor trailer rigs moving 80,000 lbs of supplies. trains moving items also. sure they may get 4 mpg or whatever, BUT, that's 4 miles of movement of something heavy. points to ponder.
sorry to be longwinded about it but i'm passionate about this subject.

 

i hear you, i drive a diesel also.
maple syrup does smell better than gear oil.

 

Collectivism doesn't work. When everyone expects that the others should be doing as much work as they are everyone ends up doing less work. If there is reward in the form of higher salaries you usually get what you pay for or you let the slackers go.