Now that our wonderful, insightful government is finally saying that global warming is a real issue, this administration is making another huge mistake by promoting Flex-Fuel which completely falls short as a solution to the gravitas of our foreign oil dependency. Before I go into my explanation of this statement, I will lay down some baseline facts of what Flex-Fuel is and how it can be hypothetically implemented into our energy needs.

Ethanol, the major alcohol in use today, is brewed from corn, rice, wheat, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, and sugar cane. It is mainly produced from the non-edible parts of our corn crops. Many vegetative producers are realizing that their odds and ends can be converted into ethanol as our future fuel for profit. “Even Coors Brewing Company is producing 1.5 million gallons per year of fuel ethanol from waste beer and is expanding that output an additional 1.5 million gallons per year in the near future. Others have discussed using otherwise waste crops like freeze damaged fruit, over ripe produce like apples and even out-of-date bakery goods like stale bread and cakes as possible feed stock streams for ethanol plants.”***

Flex-Fuel Vehicles, also known generically as Flexible Fuel Vehicles or Dual Fuel Vehicles, are automobiles that can alternate between two types of fuel, ethanol and/or gasoline. The typical Flex-Fuel automobile can accept an 85% ethanol/methanol and 15% gasoline mixture (E85/M85). These vehicles can run on pure gasoline or any percentage of both fuels up to the stated maximum of 85% alcohol. Besides a few modifications, these Flexible Fuel automobiles are identical to the regular gas only vehicles.

The following are benefits that Flex-Fuel offers to our country and to the environment:

“On a per-mile-driven basis, using 1999 technology, dry milling process derived E85, reduced petroleum usage by 74.9%, GHG emissions by 18.8%, and total fossil energy consumed by 35%. Wet milling derived E85 with 1999 technology would net reductions of 72.5% in petroleum usage, 13.7% in GHG emissions, and 34.4% in fossil energy used.

Using more recent state of the art (circa 2005) technology, the energy usage figures improve slightly, with an appreciable decrease in GHG emissions. Dry mill current technology reduces petroleum usage by 75.6%, GHG emissions by 25.5% and fossil energy use by 40.7%. Wet mill current technology reduces petroleum usage by 73.7%, GHG by 23.8% and fossil energy by 42.5%.” - Wikipedia.com [E85]

These facts are definitively beneficial for our country and our planet. But is this the best we can do? This is still a “Fuel” that requires development and production by a select group who subsequently distributes and sells it to us, the consumer. Remember we will be totally dependent on this energy source for our lives to function properly. This is exactly what the big corporate tycoons want! A fuel that is absolutely essential for the public and its economy in the hands of the elite few. Why do we, the consumers, keep allowing ourselves to be placed in such a weak position? The power will just shift from the power hungry oil conglomerates to these potential powerhouse ethanol producers.

At the current time, these ethanol producers may be fair and honest since they are fairly independent, but just wait until the industry becomes a multi-billion dollar business. I’d bet my last dollar that there are potential ethanol producers who are just waiting for the green light, so they can start buying up all the corn, sugar cane, fruit and vegetable waste, dirty socks…or whatever can be converted to ethanol. They will buy up the land and the product. What’s that? Did I hear that Walmart is staking out a huge claim in ethanol? Oh that’s great [sarcasm]! If you know anything about Walmart, then you should know how they are the most power hungry massive conglomerate second to the pharmaceutical and oil industry. But, if you do not believe me then visit this website. Bottom line, we will still be at the mercy of big, greedy, corporate interests. But, in this case, instead of ‘Big Oil’, it will be ‘Big Ethanol’.

If you still don’t believe me, then read an aritcle in The Washington Post today entitled, “Mexico in tortilla crisis as push for ethanol boosts price of corn”. The article reports dramatically rising international corn prices, spurred by demand for the grain-based fuel ethanol. This has resulted in tortilla prices being tripled or quadrupled in Mexico. Since tortillas comprise 40% of poor Mexican families daily protein intake, families with one wage earner have been faced with having to spend as much as a third of their income on tortillas. The uproar has been because the Mexican government is favoring big corn companies instead of sanctioning them. Surprise, surprise…see what I mean?

When are we going to learn from our mistakes? Look at the recent history of this administration pandering to big oil and corporate interests. This government has proven over and over that it can not be trusted. And these billion dollar corporate conglomerates continue to throw their weight around. What do you think happens after these politicians accept huge donations for their campaigns? Do you think they just shake hands and say, “Thanks, see you later”?

The red flag I see now is how Bush is all of a sudden whole-heartedly behind Flex-Fuel. We need to seriously contemplate why he is promoting this one type of “energy” (an ‘all eggs in one basket’ mentality). Anytime there is a billion dollar potential (2 billion gallons/yearly X $2.00/gallon), there is going to be dishonesty, malicious intention, greed, power, and manipulation. Do you think this will not happen with ethanol — that somehow ethanol will be spared this exploitation by big corporate interests? It happened with oil, pharmaceuticals, corporate conglomerates, the media, and next on the list, Flex-Fuel.

Had enough? Well, that was just the political issue with Flex-Fuel. Let’s take a look at the not-so-advertised hard facts of Flex-Fuel.

Since billions of barrels of oil are imported into this country from the unstable Middle East for our exorbitant energy needs, we need to find a way to lower this dependence on foreign oil. I think we can all agree on that. But, can we do this with Flex-Fuel? Well… NO! Not even close. Let’s look at the numbers.

We are currently consuming 7.5 billion barrels of oil per year* in the United States. We domestically produce about 2.5 billion barrels*. That leaves a huge deficit of 5 billion barrels. Well, today we can produce about 2 billion gallons of ethanol**. Well, that’s close, that just leaves… Opps! Wait a minute, we are comparing barrels to gallons.

Let’s convert the measurements, so that we can “compare apples to apples”. Out of the 42 gallon barrel of oil, we can produce about 19.5 gallons of gas. So, that leaves the deficit at around 97.5 billion gallons of gas. Now we will subtract the awesome 2 billion gallons of ethanol, and that leaves us with a deficit of 95.5 billion gallons. Wow, that made a huge difference [sarcasm]! Come on people! I shouldn’t even mention the fact that ethanol contains only 70% the energy that gasoline contains.

That means that we would need 30% more ethanol to equal the same amount of energy from gas, so that actually makes the deficit 96.1 billion gallons of gas still needed. Does this sound like an answer to our foreign energy dependence to you? This approximate 2% does not even tickle the dangerous situation we have placed ourselves in.

The unfortunate thing is, this is about only 30% of the downside to our “all eggs in one basket” mentality with M85. If you are wanting to say, “But what about Brazil?” or would like to see the full list of issues that I collected for this article, visit this page for you viewing pleasure.

So, what is the answer to this dizzying conundrum? HYBRID TECHNOLOGY!! Well, how about something even better? How about combining our most advanced technologies with a plug-in hybrid flex-fuel automobile that gets its electrical power from solar panels? Does that sound good to you? Well, I will fully develop this issue in Part Two of Why Flex-Fuel Is America’s Next Biggest Blunder.
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* Statistical Review of World Energy 2006

** National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition

*** Wikipedia.com [E85]