E85 v/s gasoline

Last year I bought a new car, locally made with a high local content. It was not made in a union plant, although I do not disapprove of unions. It’s just that they have squeezed the life out of an already moribund set of US manufacturers, who could not make a profit on small cars, no matter how much they squeezed the cost down. Before the new wage package was negotioated, Japanese and Korean plants had at least a $15/hour wage advantage, and considerably less retirement benefits to pay.

On the other hand, I buy California farm products since the workers now make a decent wage.

The attempt to reduce dependency on foreign oil is commendable to say the least. But if too much emphasis is placed on alcohol we might find ourselves regretting it. There is less energy in alcohol, but it costs less. Car engines tuned to run E85, which is naturally high octane, might be tuned differently to get more performance from these new fuels. None the less there is a limit to how much of this we can make. Plus, agriculture makes its own pollution from fertilizer run off. We could find ourselves in an environmental disaster if we don’t watch out.

Weight is one thing we can reduce to get better mileage with old technology. I have a 67 VW Beetle that has been peaking at 42 MPG, and this is old engine technology. But it weighs less than 1,800 pounds. With modern cars if we could think before we purchase maybe we could save ourselves thousands of dollars in fuel costs over the life of the vehicle by selecting options that weigh less, probably costs less too. For example, electric windows. Nice, but heavier that manual crank windows. Roof racks reduce mileage, avoid buying a vehicle equipped with one. The list goes on and on. Plus you need to remove items you carry in your vehicle to save gas. Got some extra tools or golf clubs you can remove? Make sure your air filter is clean and replace if not. Air up those tires!

Just like with Hybrid technology E85 might evolve into something better later. Right now I’m not convinced it’s for me. But I appreciate those who use it. They just might be pioneering the way for the rest of us.

It’s just that they have squeezed the life out of an already moribund set of US manufacturers, who could not make a profit on small cars, no matter how much they squeezed the cost down.

Don’t totally blame the unions on this one. The biggest squeeze is Retirement packages. But the Big-3 had the opportunity to shore up the retirement packages YEARS AGO…but choose NOT TO. They wanted higher profits instead. This was during the time they were already making record profits. Now that times are tough…they are screaming FOUL. Management had the opportunity to clean up this mess and they didn’t. I will agree the packages in many cases are EXTREME…but it’s NOT all the union fault.

Ethanol is actually keeping gasoline prices low in Missouri.

At the beginning of this year, the state implemented a new law requiring that all gasoline include 10 percent ethanol. With the price of crude oil rising much faster than that of ethanol, the new formulation may save consumers about 10 cents per gallon relative to regular gas.*

*Why is gas so cheap in Missouri?

It’s the Health Care part of the retirement packages that are the most onerous. This is something that is paid out of ongoing revenue and is not vested, like the actual pensions. There are more retirees than workers now and UAW retirees even got free Viagra, before the healthcare part of the retirees was shifted to the unions.

Agree that the companies could have planned better for the future product needs in the market rather than concentrating on short term profits. They were all building hybrid prototypes in 1993!!! Then dropped the ball.

It’s too late now, and over 50% of vehicle sales in North America are now from Asian and European companies. This trend will continue; like in televisions, computers, electronics, etc.

Guys, does it really matter who steered the ship into the iceberg? The ship is still sinking and the deck chairs are still being rearranged buy the joint management/union deck chair committee.

It’s a towel minus a vowel.

First off, I’ll say this. I believe George W Bush is one of the better Presidents we have had in this country. I believe that he has faced more problems than any President in history and has done one heck of a job. Never in history have we had a population of Americans who for whatever reason refuse to support our country, our troops, and our own cause. The single biggest mistake George W Bush has made is to listen to the criticism of the obviously Democrat biased media who is intent on making him look bad in order to elect the likes of Obama. What we needed was a George Patton on the other end who when faced with live tv coverage of 50,000 idiots burning American soldiers on the side of a bridge ordered C130 gunships to level every one involved in that disaster and politely explain that the next roadside bomb that so much as dents a US truck will result in a 2 mile radius of the worst devistation immaginable and carried it out on the first few of those stunts. I believe the results would have been a lot different. As it is, were trying to figure out what the rules of war are.

If we want to get serious about conserving fuel it’s not going to involve worrying ourselves to death about how far we drive or if we are driving a Suburban or Prius. Conserving fuel is going to have to involve working on much larger problems and much larger users of fuel than vehicles are.

Heating and cooling buildings and homes is a major user of fuel in a lot of ways. If we could cut the consumption of electricity and natural gas by 1/3 that’s used in heating and cooling buildings it would make a tremendous difference on a lot of levels. It costs fuel to generate electricity, it costs fuel to haul the coal used to generate electricity, it costs fuel to transport coal to the tipples, and it costs to mine the coal. Reduce that consumption and you’ll save a heck of a lot more fuel than you would reducing the consumption of 400 commuters by 1/3. There are ways to do it that have been developed and could be continually improved. Solar heat works, Geo-Thermal systems can reduce a heat pump’s energy consumption in half in some cases, Strategic planting of a few shade trees can reduce a home’s heating and cooling costs. Insulation in homes and commercial buildings helps amoung other proven technologies. If we started putting these technologies to use we’d be a bunch better off. Instead, we spend billions trying to preserve 100 year old historic buildings that are extremely wasteful for heating and cooling costs.

We need to get our manufacturing based back in this country and not in China. A box of nails these days has 5000 miles on it before it gets to the store. That’s a heck of a lot of fuel involed when we could manufacture them closer to home, have jobs for ourselves, and a much shorter delivery distance. Cheap fuel, government regulation, and labor problems in this country have over the last 20 to 30 years driven manufacturing out in droves. It’s also forced smaller companies out as they’ve been bought by larger and larger corporations. It even spills over to our food supplies. Where 20 years ago, beef, pork, chickens, and the like were raised, slaughtered and distributed locally, these days they are hauled hundreds of miles to packaging plants, more miles to distribution warehouses, more miles to stores, and finally to the consumer. A chicken can easily have 2000 miles on it before it gets to your table where 20 years ago it had 10 to 100 miles on it. These fuel prices are going to force companies to look at this kind of thing, and honestly under our capitolistic system, it’s providing opportunity for smaller operations to build a small slaughter house that can prep meats and sell them out the back door cheaper that Wal Mart or Kroger can dream of. In the process the farmer makes more money and more of the money is staying local.

We are going to have to quit placing infrastructure based on politics and pandering to whoever. There’s no reason to haul Kentucky coal to Georgia and Florida to run utility plants. It’s much cheaper to ship electricity over high voltage lines than it is billions of tons of coal. The electricity should be generated as close as possible to where the coal is mined and the electric power shipped over electric lines. It would save billions of gallons of fuel. Yes, Kentucky would be above it’s carbon credits, but the people coming up with nonsense like this aren’t taking into account the waste of fuel burned that need not be.

It ought to be illegal for a home or building to be heated with fuel oil which in effect is diesel fuel. There’s no reason at all for that kind on non-sense. It’s burning fuel where there are alternatives available that are much better and not as scarce.

Electrical generation needs to work on generating power through methods other than coal. The TVA project was a heck of an idea. Why something like a snail darter was ever allowed to stop these very needed and appreciated projects is beyond me. Lakes can produce a heck of a lot of electrical power. The also have added benefits of supplying water, recreation, and a fishery. No community that I know of has not appreciated a lake. If we’d have continued the TVA projects as intended and devloped other systems for power production, we would be producing more power without burning fuel.

It’ll never happen because it’s too easy to blame someone and I suppose an SUV is as good a target for blame as anything else.

Skipper

First off, I’ll say this. I believe George W Bush is one of the better Presidents we have had in this country. I believe that he has faced more problems than any President in history and has done one heck of a job…

Sorry that’s as far as could get before my eyes teared up… from laughter.

If that was intended to be funny… Mission Accomplished!

But, don’t worry Skipper. We do protect minority rights in this country–and you are definitely in the minority with this opinion.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Neither could I Craig.

I wonder–Does Skipper read the newspapers? Is he aware that the person whom he admires has the lowest approval rating of any president in modern history?

None of this makes Skipper wrong, and he is certainly entitled to his opinion (unless the Patriot Act has banned the expression of personal opinion!), but I just hope that he realizes that he is part of a VERY small minority.

nevermind

I believe George W Bush is one of the better Presidents we have had in this country. I believe that he has faced more problems than any President in history and has done one heck of a job.

Do you really think that W faced more problems than Lincoln? What about Washington? What about Jefferson? What about FDR? At least when these guys fought a war, they knew how to win. At least the war on the middle class is going well!

You crack me up, Skipper. Keep it up.

I hated Bush way before it was cool.

Ok, now my redneck side is going to come out.

First of all, you bunch of anti United States folks can kiss my American Ass. If you don’t like this country and don’t want to support it, there’s a whole other globe of places that you can pack up your crap and move to and most people here won’t miss you.

I grew up an Army Brat. My father was an officer in the United States Army, and yes, they suffered like the dickens during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter and no, the majority of the people I knew didn’t like him or his policies yet my father would have whipped me if I’d talked about him the way you all are talking about George Bush for the simple fact HE was the President of the United States of America and to run him down was to run our own country down.

Over the last sever decades our politicians from the local city council to Washington have managed to make a mess of a lot of things and as long as it’s gone on, currently a lot of it is now coming to a head. We are having resource troubles like never before in history. Everything from the capacity to produce electricity, to fuel, to water is all being taxed because we’ve followed insane policies from a bunch of liberal do gooders who want to save the world but have no idea how it works.

For what it’s worth, I’ve read the bull shit being published in the papers and told on the idiot box. I know what the liberal media is saying about our President and honestly, I can’t believe that the American public would put up with such bull hockey. George Bush is our President and we are at war against Islamic Idiots who would like nothing more than to wipe all of us from the face of the Earth. The sooner we figure that our, as far as I’m concerned, the better. Tolerance of that crock of crap as a religion is not flying with me and millions of others who are still willing to waive the American Flag, Stand by our Troops and our Leaders, Say a prayer to the 1 true God for our country, and yes, willing to Stand up and Volunteer to defend this nation if necessary with our lives in order that we may remain Free and may remain the most prosperous country in the history of man kind.

Yes, it’s sad we’ve lost the troops we’ve lost in this war, but who’s fault is it? George Bush’s or the Liberals who want to bitch whine and accuse us of playing war unfair. Our media has successfully seen to it that dozens of our soldiers have been jailed and prosecuted for defending this country and protecting themselves from harm. It’s got to the point that our soldiers don’t know if they are supposed to stand there and get killed or fight off the enemy and live. That’s nuts, stupid, and one of the causes of this mess dragging on as it is. The Army’s job is to kill people and break things not to stand around and try to make friends with our enemy. Well, I suppose we did that with Japan, but we did it by showing that without a doubt we were willing to kill as many of them as it took to put a stop to the war. Once that was made abundantly clear via 2 nuclear bombs, we were done with that war and they’ve been friends of ours ever since.

I don’t know where you all were on 9-11. I was at the bank making a deposit when the first plane hit. They attacked US first and in the process killed thousands of people and created billions of dollars in damage and trillions of dollars in economic loss. As far as I’m concerned, they got what they deserved and should have gotten a heck of a lot more. If it’d been up to me we’d cleared out Syria, Iran, and Iraq, planted Stars and Stripes on those places permanently and been done with this mess. No, you all want to wait on the United Nations to solve such problems. It wouldn’t bother me if we loaded the UN, all of it, on a big barge and shoved it out in the Atlantic Ocean and let those idiot figure out where to dock it and set up shop. Yeah, I know, you’re going to say we hit the wrong ones, well, remember that pile of terrorists who hung those Americans from that bridge in Falluja and burned them live on National Television? It appears to me we are barking up the right tree and should have barked louder killing every last one of those idiots.

You all can stand around till dooms day waiting on those sissys in France to love us once again, personally I could care less what the French think. I live in the United States, I support the United States, and I certainly support the leader of this Country George W Bush. France needs to go back in history and check on how many hundred thousand American troops lives it took for their country to still be there and figure out who’s taking care of them and start sucking up to us instead of the hordes of towel heads taking over their own country.

Skipper

Since when is hating Bush unamerican? Questioning authority is American. Voicing our dissatisfaction with Bush’s management of the war is American. Worshiping a President like a king or a pope is very unamerican.

I love this country. My family has been here for 12 generations, several of which fought wars and died for this country.

Sorry, the buck stops at the Whitehouse. We can’t blame the French for W’s poor leadership.

I just don’t know how to respond to such flawless logic. However, I do find the term “american ass” strangely appropriate when we are talking about little george and his buddy big dick. The US government has done some pretty dumb things over the last 55 years, but the last 6 years have been one monumental cluster f*** (to use an official military term). If their stupidity wasn’t getting people killed it would almost be funny; in reality it’s just sad, embarrassing, and pointless.

Sorry if you and your american ass don’t like my opinions.

Skipper, try some decaf.

Edit: Congrats on learning how to spell “towel.”

Craig

As you and I and anyone who has ever taken US History courses knows, the concept of dissent is truly “American”, and is exactly what our nation was founded upon. Those who believe in mindless adherence to authority are actually the ones who are operating counter to the principles of democracy and liberty.

Do you think that Skipper would be a little less likely to support his idol if he knew a bit more about the incredible amount of graft that has taken place during the current administration? Of course, since those like him will dismiss anything that is critical of Dubya as being “liberal”, he will probably immediately dismiss this information. However, for those of you with an open mind, I suggest that you read the following news story from The BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7444083.stm

The waste of human life from the current adventure in Iraq is unconscionable. The levels of waste and graft unearthed by the BBC may actually be indictable!

“France needs to go back in history and check on how many hundred thousand American troops lives it took for their country to still be there”

Perhaps if you go back in history, you will realize that our young nation would never have won the Revolutionary War if not for the very generous aid of the French. Our army and navy would likely have been unable to defeat the British if the French had not given us both monetary and military aid in the late 1700s.

Since its founding, the US has often stunned the world by is audacious and far-sighted actions.

Buying Alaska from Russia (Seward’s Folly?) was typical, outflanking Britain in the Oregon Boundary dispute was another, defeating one colonizing power after another in its expansion was truly remarkable. Taking charge from the French in finishing the Panama Canal was an international coup.

Most of Europe is still grateful for the US participation in WW II, and the Marshall Plan which financed European reconstruction.

On the other hand when ego and special interests got in the way of common sense US leaders have pulled some monumental “bull in the china shop” blunders; Johnson being egged on by Goldwater’s “better dead than read” retoric and resultant Vietnam war (Tonkin Gulf Resolution), Nixon’s energy and economic policy which disregarded what went on in the rest of the world, the lack of a far-sighted and cohesive energy policy, kowtowing to a moribund car industry, and, of course the 2nd Iraq war.