Ethanol mandate in gasoline

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Lloyd Keigwin
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Ethanol mandate in gasoline

#1 Post by Lloyd Keigwin »

This post is not about how ethanol in fuel affects 356s, hence I am not posting it in that focused discussion. It is also NOT political, but factual, and some members may find this of interest.

Recently published research has shown that, mostly because of changes in land use, growing corn (maize) to produce ethanol in the U.S. does not help reduce CO2 emissions and may have the opposite effect. The academic paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, can be found here: https://www.pnas.org/content/119/9/e2101084119

And a Reuters news story about it can be found here:

https://www.reuters.com/business/enviro ... d%20Monday.

I have thought this might be true, ever since I noticed a 10% decrease in fuel economy in my 356 and other cars, which may mean we are burning more gasoline because of ethanol regardless of the land use effect.

Lloyd Keigwin

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David Jones
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Re: Ethanol mandate in gasoline

#2 Post by David Jones »

Lloyd it is true and has been since the advent of the ethanol additive laws. It makes sense in Brazil but the only folks that ethanol really benefits especially in the USA are the farmers and the politicians who get kickbacks to keep the myth alive. I do not and cannot disagree with the fact that ethanol does enable cleaner burning gasoline but it also requires that the engines be configured for it and maintained and that costs $ as well, plus the saving in pollution are then mitigated by having to burn more fuel to offset the decreased gas mileage. I was happy to read that report when it came out because it meant that someone eventually did the math and it shows what I have known for a long time. Don't worry though, it will be ignored and swept under the rug and the world will continue to burn. Fortunately we as 356 owners can only contribute an infinitesimal amount of added pollution.

This may also be of interest.
https://www.zmescience.com/other/featur ... -05022022/
If I had known I would live this long I would have pushed the envelope a little harder.
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