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New E85 station in Olympia
From Domestic Fuel:
Wilcox & Flegel Oil Company, one of the largest fuel distributors in the Northwest, is committed to E85 and is offering the product in the city of Olympia, Washington. This is the sixth location the distributor is supplying.
- Rick's blog
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Comments
And as you fill up,
feel good you MIGHT be helping Mother Earth, but likely making it more difficult for another mother to feed her kids.
No fuel from food, no fuel grown on land that can grow food!
Refuse to buy E85 or Biodiesel made from food.
"RITALIN, so much easier than parenting"
itchyhitch.blogspot.com
There are a lot of problems with ethanol...
...but the displacement of food crops isn't actually one of them. For one thing, corn is only one source of ethanol. Second generation biofuels use other grains and cellulose to make fuel. Food prices have increased because of the overall rise in the price of energy.
The whole issue of biofuels is actually very complex. There is a great episode of "To the Point" with Warren Olney. Listen to it here. Here's just the bit about the effect on the price of food:
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Beware the terrible simplifiers.
Jacob Burckhardt
Rick,
as you know, I'm a fan of biofuels. And yes the technology for the future of biofuels will move us from foodstuffs to other sources. But currently the primary source for biodiesel and E85 is from foodstuffs.
Algae for biodiesel and like you indicated cellulose, and grasses that grow in areas unsuitable for growing food are possible and actually superior for the end product volume. But if people keep buying the current stuff, the move to other sources will be slower.
Also the engine technology needs to catch up to the bio industry. Biodiesel at greater than B20 has a negative effect on current diesel engines. The City of Olympia has lost 3 engines directly related to biodiesel. The City has used B99 in the warm months and B50 in the winter. One of the motors was under warranty and the warranty didn't cover the damage as the biodiesel mixture rate was higher than the manufacture would allow.
Anyway, I would suggest, don't use E85 (or biodiesel) unless you know it was produced from non-foodstuff sources.
"RITALIN, so much easier than parenting"
itchyhitch.blogspot.com
food for what?
Re: the food issue-
-isn't most of the "food" (corn) grown for feed for animals?
And since I'm not into industrialized food, not an issue for me-
Cost per gallon is a factor as is performance...and everything I have seen is that my flex-fuel Ranger would lose power while running E85...
...no simple answer yet, so I just don't drive that much (save the fuel for roadtrips to breweries =)
Thanks for the post Rick and the input JT...
...now does anybody have a line on a biofuel tractor our neighborhood garden club?