Caught this small section

I was reading through an tech central article and i read this part.

"Example: Newsweek syndicated columnist Fareed Zakaria recently spouted the nonsensical notion that, with a simple reduction in the greedy dependence of the auto industry on gasoline-powered engines, 500-miles-to-the-gallon cars could be on the market. Zakaria touted home-based "plug-in" hybrid powerplants running on 15% gasoline and 80% methanol or ethanol."

Either Zakaria does not know what he is talking about or the guy quoting Zakeria does not know what he is taking about. As far as i know, the "home-based "plug-in" hybrid powerplants running on 15% gasoline and 80% methanol or ethanol" do exist, though not in the form that Zakeria said they do.

Millions of cars in America are ready to be run on a mix of gasoline and ethanol. This mix is called E85 (15 percent gasoline and 85 percent ethanol). These cars are "hybrids" in the sense that they run off of a mixed fuel, but not hybrid in the traditional sense of running off of gasoline and electricity.

The author of the tech central article, then goes on to write off all alternative fuels.

"He of course ignored the wallet-busting cost of producing, refining and distributing alternative fuels, including the aforementioned ethanol and methanol as well as hydrogen, compressed-natural gas, bio-waste, et al. Such pot-shot proclamations from the elite media are not uncommon, but do nothing to alter the reality that petroleum-based vehicle engines are here to stay for the foreseeable future.."

With several of these fuels i am sure the tech central guy is right, but with ethanol, he is WRONG. I am not so sure that it burst the wallet producing, refining, and distributing. I do not know the individual costs of those processes, but from what i could find out the price of a gallon of E85 was 1.85 from the pump at United Energy Dist. #1 in SC (803-642-0113 you can call if you like).

It is important to know that switching to E85 will not solve the CO2 problem (which i do not think it is a problem, because if the earth gets warmer more plants will grow using up the CO2 that is in the air), but it will help with ENERGY INDEPENDENCE and that is what i care about.

cube