by Colin Donoghue
Daily Lobo columnist
The national energy bill signed by President Bush on Aug. 8 at Sandia National Laboratories will once again have our tax dollars working in the wrong direction.
The bill will not raise the fuel mileage requirements of our vehicles or significantly support renewable energy such as solar, wind, hydrogen fuel cells or ethanol fuel. Bush and company are, as usual, doing pretty much the opposite of what needs to be done, instead supporting the development of new nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons.
Instead of going on about the many faults of the Bush administration's energy policy, however, we should focus on solutions to our dependence on foreign oil, the acceleration of global warming and air pollution.
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America's energy problems are many and complicated. You have undoubtedly noticed the ever-increasing price of gasoline at the pump, which will only keep rising as our global supply runs ever lower. Hopefully, you are also aware of our continuing dependence of foreign oil, and the thousands of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians killed in recent years. And of course there is global warming, which is changing the Earth's ecosystem for the worse, and may end up endangering all life on this planet if left unimpeded.
Fortunately, there is an existing solution to this problem. This technology is not in need of more development - in fact, it's already in use, and you may have used it without even realizing it. I'm talking about Flexible Fuel Vehicles, or FFV's. The manufacturers of these vehicles include Mercedes and other DaimlerChrysler cars, Ford, Mazda and Mercury, Nissan, GMC and Isuzu.
These are regular cars and trucks, like the ever-popular Ford Taurus sedan and Chevy Silverado truck, except they have one big difference. They can run on regular gasoline, or they can run on up to 85 percent ethanol. The fuel is called E85, and it is available at some gas station pumps alongside regular gas.
You may have seen the news reports on the station providing E85 that opened up in Santa Fe not too long ago. E85 burns much cleaner than regular petroleum-based gas, thereby reducing smog, respiratory illnesses and greenhouse gas emissions - such as carbon dioxide - by almost half. Ethanol is non-toxic, water soluble and biodegradable, so we don't need to worry about oil spills or drinking water contamination like we do with petroleum, and it is a renewable resource, since it is produced from corn and other vegetables.
Ethanol can even be made from the biomass of municipal waste. Remember Mr. Fusion from the movie "Back to the Future II"? It's like that, except the cars don't fly - at least not yet. Using this waste productively would also help reduce the size and expansion of landfills, which is another environmental bonus.
Ethanol is made through a process of fermentation and distillation, not unlike the way the beer you're possibly sipping right now was made. There are millions of Flexible Fuel Vehicles on the road in America, but most of those are using regular gasoline due to lack of awareness and demand for E85 fuel. The main obstacle to all American cars and trucks being E85 capable is government support and public demand.
If you're looking for a new car, consider purchasing an FFV. If you can't afford a new car but would like to support the existence of FFV's, you can write to your local, state and national representatives and say you want more infrastructure and political support for E85 vehicles.
One piece of misinformation you may encounter is the claim that ethanol takes more energy to produce than the energy that is derived from it. This might have once been the case, but ethanol production technology has advanced beyond this.
Ethanol refineries can be powered by solar and wind power, further reducing toxic emissions in our atmosphere. Ethanol is homegrown by American farmers, and many of these farmers have leased small portions of their land for wind turbine use. Ethanol will bring the profits home and not into foreign dictatorships and the super-rich petroleum industry.
You may have also heard of hydrogen fuel cells vehicles that are now being manufactured, which produce absolutely no toxic emissions. This technology is promising indeed, but until it becomes more affordable and a hydrogen infrastructure is put in place, E85, which can use infrastructure very much like that already in place and which uses vehicles already mass-produced, is the best choice for the immediate future.
