Lone Ranger

Corn ethanol is not the answer. Not even in the short term. Cellulose ethanol maybe, but where is the R&D on that?

The answer, friends, is conservation while we develop fuel cell technology. Conservation means more hybrids and more non-hybrid fuel efficient vehicles. Come on folks, no more shopping trips, grocery runs, and ball game taxiing in vehicles designed for forest rangers. Do it in something more efficient. That doesn't even mean lose your Expedition for a hybrid or even a Corolla. But it DOES mean lose your Expedition for a Freestyle, or better yet an Escape (sorry for the Ford branding here, quickest one to come to mind..). Or you could take it step a further and lose it for a Focus.

If we are ever going to make a dent in our oil consumption, Americans are going to have to reverse this trend we have of being better at self-indulgence than we are at self-sacrifice. Fuel efficiency can still be fun: Look at our HHR's.

Given the better automotive technology we have today, it is really pathetic that our average MPG nationwide is less than it was in the 80's. We drove more fuel efficient cars in the 80's. How pathetic is that?

TomR00

Yea, but it's sure to make someone RICH$$$$$$$

TomR

pg318

There is a fair amount of research on switchgrass, but even the most optimistic production estimates leave us needing about twice the land area to grow biofuels as is currently used for food crops in the US, to replace all the gasoline we use (we could import it...). Like corn, the estimates for yield and cost are wildly varying, with some analyses indicating that more fuel is used in the growing, harvesting and conversion than is produced, though the median guess for switchgrass is better than that for corn.
Using less fuel is the only viable solution. I've done my bit for the moment, by switching to a vehicle with double the fuel mileage of the 6000lb, primarily single occupant vehicle I used to have.

RaceOn

Ethanol is just a pie in the sky idea. It takes four gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol, so not only are we compromising our food supply, but we are also compromising our water supply. Corn based ethanol requires access to unlimited amounts of water and very high quality soil. Unfortunately the US doesn't have both in the same place. Good soil in the Midwest, but not adequate water supply. Good water supply on both coasts, but not good quality soil. Additionally, we don't even address the amount of fuel, be it fossil or plant based, necessary to plant, harvest or haul the corn or soybeans to the processor. We need to stop this madness before it destroys our food and water supply. Then again, there are some among us that are wishing for just such a scenario.

Pat

wingfeather

Conserving fossil fuel won't do any good.

So your Freestyle gets 8 more miles to the gallon... your money still goes to build up the Middle East.

Once popular demand is there, more efficient technologies will be developed. Don't throw out the idea yet. Nobody is going to let it eat into our food/water supply. We're already doing a good job of ruining our food (see the meat scare this week?).

Alzonie

After the oil embargo back in the 70s the Western nations, and especially the U.S. should have aggressively started searching for alternatives to gasoline. We've diddled around now for 25 or 30 years really not doing much to solve the problem. Now OPEC and the big Oil Companies have once again got us by the short hairs!

wingfeather

Sad, but true. People tend to get lazy once adversity goes away. Look at 9/11... but that is another thread I guess.

Lone Ranger

We tried ethanol back in the 70's. Remember "Gasohol?" It flopped. Mainly because OPEC opened the spigot back up and oil prices fell to the point that it made ethanol plants a negative cash flow situation (money losers).

And 8 extra mpg can make a measurable difference if everyone getting 11 mpg would do it. But again, I'll say that too many people are better at self-indulgence than they are at self-sacrifice... our economy reeks of it (high debt and low savings).

SandyBeach

ABC did a report the other night on wheat prices also skyrocketing because it's being used to make ethanol. A bakery was paying $40 for a bag of flour that cost $15 a year ago.

The bottom line is us HHR owners conserving fuel will pay more in food prices to provide more fuel for those driving big SUVs. What a crock!

jeffs396

I think we need more diesel engines in America, especially in small cars. Europe's been dealing with outrageous gas prices for years, you can buy efficient diesels in just about anything on four wheels there. Then we could use alot of things here (like used vegetable oil) that normally is thrown away (although I'm sure they'll start charging for that soon, too!) & your car would smell like a fryer going down the road, too!