I recently read this article from CNN on decreasing our dependence on oil by using alternative fuels. This short article promoted this use of ethanol in the form of E85, while barely mentioning other alternative fuels such as biodiesel, electric, and hydrogen cells. E85 is a blend of ethanol containing 15% gasoline. This article talks about President Bush's energy plan and highlights a meeting he had with automakers. The automakers have promised to increase production of vehicles that can run on alternative fuels, especially ethanol blends. I am glad that the automakers are finally investing in alternatively fueled vehicles, but I feel as though they should be doing more. Right now, it appears that all the focus is on developing cars that run on ethanol or ethanol blends. The problem is that ethanol blends are not readily available. Also, where is the ethanol to make the blends going to come from? I feel like more focus should be on cars that can run on biodiesel, which is now available everywhere with lots of places selling up to a B20 blend. However, my biggest problem with this article is that it does not say anything about improving the gas mileage on cars. Automakers should focus on both alternative fuels and improving fuel efficiency. Here's the link to the article in case you are interested in reading it.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/03/26/bush.automakers.ap/index.html
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The article definitely suggests that the administration is only concerned with national security and not environmental issues. A disappointment, but I guess not a surprise.
I had a discussion today with a couple of Emory students; everyone expressed their excitement over the fact that Emory is using electricity and biodiesel to power the shuttles. It was great to hear a group of "regular" students supporting these initiatives.
Yeah I agree with you. I read a similar article in the AJC yesterday, but in that one, they talked more extensively about fuel economy. I know that a lot of the ethanol that they are going to be using in automobiles will be coming from sugarcane, because its product is readily available and easily converted.
I agree with the tips mentioned in the article to improve the efficiency of our oil and other depleted resources. However, one thing that is not included is the fact that even though hybrid cars are more efficient, their batteries tend to die quicker. So, economically, in the long run it might not make much sense to buy hybrid cars with that run on biodiesel fuel.
I am not sure how long conventional batteries last. Hybrid batteries are much more expensive to replace. When I bought my hybrid, I was advised to buy an extended warranty just to cover the cost of battery replacement. I think the battery will need to be replaced after 7-8 years.
The movie "Who killed the electric car?" today was really interesting. It'a amazing that I have not heard anything about any electric car until this point. If we could find a way to improve the efficiency of the battery such as finding a way to increase the mileage to maybe even 100 miles that would be fantastic. When I was taking microbiology we discussed several alternatives to using oil. There is a new genetically modified strain of yeast that could produce ethanol and there are also bacteria that can produce hydrogen. But so far these methods are not working well on a macroscale which is why I think they are not being implemented.
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