Corn on the Cob Craziness

What a roller coaster ride we’ve been on over the past 36 months when talking about energy.  Last year gasoline for our cars went from $1.50 to almost $5.00 in just a few weeks, and electricity followed close behind with rates that often times doubled in cost to the end user.

The presidential election of 2008 focused on many options dealing with this issue. Some were good and some were at least a bit far fetched, but it seemed that both sides of the political arena missed the point all together.

First what caused this huge increase in the first place?¬† If you think back to hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005 and the days following that disaster, we experienced rising fuel cost because the refineries had been damaged to the point of rendering some of them useless.¬† Wow, one storm in one state caused higher fuel prices nationwide almost instantaneously?¬†¬†I know, I know,¬†I‚Äôm not buying it either. What’s worse, now even the threat of a storm approaching makes Wall Street reap profits and prices at the pump go up.

Then the 2007/ 2008 fuel spike that placed our fuel cost at nearly $5.00 a gallon due to the fact that the United States supposedly was unable to get enough fuel for the current demand.  Now ask yourself; did our demand go down after the summer of 2008?
Government and insiders offered us crappy reasons such as Oil Speculation, lesser output by oil producing countries and stock piling. Regardless of the reason you believe, fuel went down again to a more manageable level hovering around the $2.60 mark.  But in the meantime we were introduced to a new fuel additive, affectionately called E10 (10% ethanol added to each gallon of gasoline).

Now that the results of this “earth saving” chemical additive are beginning to come in we are wondering who is reaping the benefits. Save the planet was the front runner to this wonderful new chemical addition.¬†¬†¬†It promised¬†to be¬†the answer to saving fuel and causing far less carbon monoxide emissions than fuel being burned without it.¬† However, the first cracks in this scheme were carburetor issues in both small and large engines alike due to the cleaning properties of E10, which removes years of built up fuel deposits in older gas tanks and fuel systems.

Rust, aluminum oxidation and more were stripped from the walls of these fuel systems and dumped right in the engines carburetor, ultimately clogging and stop the engine from running.
Then came along the water issues in fuel cells that housed E10. Ethanol is an alcohol based product that attracts water and condensation at an amazingly high rate, inviting harmful H2O into your fuel structure. Now, HHO (Hydrogen-Oxygen) is a great and saving addition to the combustion process, H2O is not.

And now comes the proof that E10 diminishes the octane in gasoline, making its shelf life less than half of what it was before.  And then the clincher. Are you ready for the best part of it all?
To make 1 gallon of E10, it takes 3 gallons of refined gasoline!¬† So we’re killing the planet and running out of fossil fuel… correct?¬† Well it seems that one of the answers we came up with… is burning up more fuel to make an additive that damages combustible engines?¬† Not smart and definitely not very thought through.

Now the race is on to construct new ways to manufacture energy and alternative ways to fossil fuels so when the time comes we will all be prepared right?  I’m all for it, and I mean everything from saving the planet to new energy sources.  Believe me the thought of having to walk, or sleep without A/C is not a pretty dream here in Florida.  But don’t you think we should start with basic fixes first?  Fixes like getting rid of an additive that consumes more fossil fuel that it takes to make than the savings it produces?

I’m not an expert on oil field exploration and I understand that the price level of $70-$90 a barrel to explore shale oil, leaves little margin. I also understand the need to Save the Planet. I’m just fed up with politicians who wait until something is almost too late to correct and than¬† plunge with full force into alternatives that have not been investigated thoroughly. Wouldn‚Äôt it be great to have leaders that have the foresight of repairing issues now while working on tomorrow‚Äôs alternatives?¬†At this stage of the game I just hope that it‚Äôs not too late and we find ourselves with little to no options.¬†¬†There either is a stupid drug in the¬†drinking water in Washington, or the moment politicians leave their constituents for an extended stay at the Potomac River, they turn stupid and greedy.

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