We're telling you for the last time, ethanol is not biodiesel
Photo by merfam. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.
Sure, you might be able to describe the difference between cellulosic ethanol made by Coskata and that made by Mascoma. Or, perhaps your biofuel knowledge is just right to explain how cellulosic ethanol and corn ethanol are different, and what each might mean to the environment. But trust me, the general public has a long way to go to understand what all these new fuel types are. Remember the posts about filling up with the wrong fuel?
Anyway, I'd just like to point out this letter to the editor that appeared in today's Washington Post. In a May 3 editorial called "The Greening of Montgomery," the WaPo mangled the difference between biodiesel and ethanol, suggesting that while switching Montgomery County's fleet of diesel cars to biofuels would be a good move, because of the problems with ethanol, care should be taken. A reader, Lynne Tucker of Bethesda, wrote in to clarify just which biofuel can go into what type of engine. What we can learn from this is that, as we educate ourselves the latest and greatest green car news, there's a lot we need to do to educate others.
[Source: WaPo]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
A Siegel 11:29PM (5/08/2008)
Yet, within the story and discussion that they referred to, there was the County Executive's SUV, which uses ethanol (as opposed to the diesel vehicles). (See: http://energysmart.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/bethesda-bagels-vs-county-executives-suv/)
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David Wright 8:00AM (5/09/2008)
It's all academic anyway. The internal combustion engine is on its way out within a decade. Switching between the various fuel mixes is like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
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Tim 9:50AM (5/09/2008)
The Washington Post employs liberal political pundants NOT fact-checkers because the owners & editors are socialists and because facts don’t sell as many papers as opinions portrayed as facts. Who really cares what they have to say in that trashy rag?
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Throwback 9:33AM (5/09/2008)
10 years from now there will be as many internal combustion engines as there are today. I seriously doubt everyone who has one will simply stop driving them. Car companies will still make them until a viable alternative exists. By viable I mean, affordable, easy to refuel, and able to meet the driving needs of the majority of the 15 million folks who buy new a car or truck each year.
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Rick 1:27PM (5/10/2008)
Hey Tim, because republicans are just so much more educated and even care more about the evironment than liberals.
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psarhjinian 10:09AM (5/09/2008)
The Washington _Post_ is socialist? As a socialist, I'm insulted.
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rgseidl 10:23AM (5/09/2008)
Most mainstream journalists have a poor grasp of science and technology, even at the consumer level. What else is new?
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steven 10:31AM (5/09/2008)
@3: Just a wee bit low there. In 2006 there were 70.9 new vehicles (minivehicles; passenger cars; light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles; and buses) produced world-wide and 68.7 million new vehicles sold. That 15 million number is closer to the yearly US sales total.
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steven 10:33AM (5/09/2008)
For some reason my MILLION dropped off. That of course should be 70.9 million new vehicles produced world-wide.
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Throwback 11:13AM (5/09/2008)
Steven you are correct. I was thinking of the USA only. That world wide figure will probably be even higher in years to come with India and China seeming to love cars as much as we Americans.
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Bill 12:34PM (5/09/2008)
I don't see the mangling. The editorial specifically mentions "biofuels" BioDiesel is a biofuel and causes the same problems that ethanol does. Subsidies and mandates cause farmland to be planted in the biofuel stock and new land is cleared for growing it. This crowds out food planting and degrades the environment as new land is cleared for cultivation.
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David Wright 12:39PM (5/09/2008)
Throwback -- I don't disgree with the criteria yo indicated. We merely differ in believing or not believing that any viable alternative will occur.
These two links might not work, but should do. The first is a forum thread on EVs in general and the second is another relating to a particular maker of EVs with an active production line churning out electric vehicles for highway use. My point being that while some folk dedicate themselves to explaining why EVs cannot or should not work, others are just getting on with making and selling them.
http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=13589354
http://www.advfn.com/cmn/fbb/thread.php3?id=13155607
Granted, electric vehicles do at present have range limitations. But batteries in use this year already offer double or treble the range of the lead acid batteries used in previous EVs. Who is to say that another doubling or trebling will not occur within a year or two, now that so many interested parties are pouring money and resources into achieving that?
I venture to suggest that half the population of the USA (which is where so many EV-skeptics reside) will be driving electric vehicles themselves in ten years.
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Supercat 2:56PM (5/09/2008)
David Wright: "I venture to suggest that half the population of the USA (which is where so many EV-skeptics reside) will be driving electric vehicles themselves in ten years."
There is no possibility whatsoever of that happening, not even close. Factors you've got to consider are installed base, rate of new car manufacture and purchase, rate of old car scrapping, and the very long development and lead times of mass producing new vehicles.
There are now some 220 - 230 million ICE cars in the U.S., a number increasing several million per year as new car sales are larger than numbers scrapped.
Current sales of EVs in 2008 = close enough to round down to zero. How do you expect EVs to have placed 120 or 130 million vehicles in the fleet by 2018? No chance. It'll take that decade for manufacturing to ramp up, and US sales of EVs to even pass -- what, 1 million? 2 million? -- per year, pretty much the best possible scenario.
Far more likely than your expectation, is that in 2018 new ICE cars will still be outselling new EV cars by 10:1 -- that's all assuming things actually progress sufficiently with EV battery tech, which remains to be seem.
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Bob Moffitt (Bob from ALAMN) 2:02PM (5/12/2008)
Even in Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Biofuels, people get the two mixed up.
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