Why are so many calling out for less ethanol, rather than greater choice and transparency?
Ensure choice.
Allow E-0 fuel for those that want it, and provide the options of greater ethanol content, E-10, E-30, E-50 etc, complete with labeling of the octane (strangely absent from every E-85 pump I have seen), BTU content (absent entirely), and eliminate the false labeling of E-50 fuels etc as E-85- which subverts people's right to build the engines that they want.
Sadly this dialogue has been hijacked by those instead more interested in sustaining a certain mercantilist status quo.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2013/06/25/aaca-joins-with-sema-ama-to-oppose-ethanol-in-fuel/comment-page-1/?fbclid=IwAR3UxjAOugZA3GAMpmESHkqqZdqhRpvcAwjgECTdP4BzmR9qCPphB8wkkyk#comment-10628757
Ethanol Fuel Mislabeling Misavailabilty Politics
ReplyDeleteThe government claims to have promoted greater use of Ethanol in motor vehicle fuels.
But, though they have pushed for about 10% Ethanol content in most gasoline motor vehicle fuels:
- E-85 is nowhere as widely available as one might suppose;
- labeling of "E-85" may be highly inaccurate as it has its Ethanol content altered significantly seasonally and IIRC may be as low as what should be labeled as "E-50";
- fuels greater than E-10 are generally absent of any labeling of the octane. As I understand it, regulators in some States, such as Kentucky, made it illegal to post octane on retail pumps dispensing fuels with greater Ethanol content than 10% (E-10).
Where is there any political movement to bring about greater choice and transparency with Ethanol fuel availability and labeling.
I personally would like to build my upcoming Pontiac engine projects to use fuels with a greater Ethanol content taking advantage for instance of its superior octane. Say E-30 with a stock appearing quadrajet (higher Ethanol fuel I understand is less practical with the basic design of such later 19560s-early 1970s carburetors). And say E-70 or E-80 with a Pontiac with EFI.
Still others would prefer such with no Ethanol, for their unmodified classic automobiles.
And still many people with modern cars would like to turn on the existing capabilities of their's, particularly if turbocharged or maybe supercharged to enjoy the possibilities of variable compression taking advantage of Ethanol's greater octane. Here's an interesting piece in National Review about automakers disabling their vehicle's flex fuel capabilities and the politics behind such:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2012/...robert-zubrin/
Such polices would work to thwart greater share of Ethanol in motor vehicle fuels, as well as have the fuel industry to divert the bulk of the Ethanol to E-10 in general, I would imagine allowing them to use lower octane gasoline as a base- recall that we used to have 93 r/m E-0, and now (in the eastern USA) 93 r/m E-10. After all if the base fuel quality were the same, then going from 0% to 10% Ethanol should have boosted the octane.
https://southmallblogger.blogspot.co...el-choice.html
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