The most important thing that E85 is giving us is…cars that run on E85. Now that the demand is there, GM and other companies are working on better ways to make ethanol in high volumes from waste materials. GM is projecting they will be able to sell E100 for $2.00 a gallon and make a profit within 3 years.

Hydrogen has it’s place as well eventually. It’s a way to store electricity from excess wind production. Hydrogen powered cars are one way to use that hydrogen, assuming they can solve the storage issues.

Companies invest the money to solve problems when they think it will be profitable to do so.

Now that there are cars running on E85 and corn is expensive, an alternative will be developed. It never made sense to develope an alternative to gasoline before. Now it does. Give them 5-10 years and the problem will be solved.

In the racing world, I guess ethanol may have a place… if only for the higher octane rating. Traditionally leaded racing fuel is used. Since lead is highly toxic, I can see the benefits of burning corn.

I can see hydrogen powered cars, or fuel cell/ electric cars becoming more appealing once the prices reach consumers. A zero emissions, pure renewable resource. I do realize that it will take time, I’m willing to wait.

I fully support hybrids. I thought I made that clear, maybe not. A plug in hybrid reduces liquid fuel usage by ~80%. Ethanol can supply the remaining 20%. In reality, it will be a combination of gasoline, E10, E20, E85 and E100 providing the majority of the fuel until plug in hybrids become more common. Once you only have to provide 20% of the total fuel usage, everything gets easier and cheaper, including hydrogen.

Personally I don’t think hydrogen will ever get common. I think what will end up happening is that plug in hybrids and regular hybrids will reduce gasoline usage to the point that oil prices fall enough that there isn’t a compelling reason to switch to anything else.

And without a compelling reason to change, we will continue using gasoline and gasoline/ethanol blends.

My point about the hydrogen powered cars is they are here, it’s not some ideal concept or something far in the future. They are proven to be more effeicent than any flexfuel cars. These hydrogen cars like the Honda Clarity. The weight of the Clarity has been reduced by 40% and the drivetrain has been reduced by 45% offering more cabin room. In college I did a speech on hydrogen powered cars. Surprising a lot of them did not know that they are in production. Yes they are available to lease only, just like hybrids they will soon be able to be pruchased.

As far as hybrids are concerned people were saying that about hybrids when they first came out that it would take years. But now they are becoming trend now, in fact I’ve seen more hybrids than flexfuel cars so far.

Although this year crops are in higher demand than ever but some of it is due to the demand for ethanol. Especially here in Texas, some reports have been done about this and that ethanol is one of the causes for price increase on corn. I’m not saying that ethanol is fully responsible but it does drive the costs of corn.

Why should I as a consumer get a flex fuel car when Hondas and Toyotas can offer better effieciency with a hybrid. Which is about a few thousand dollar difference between a hybrid and a gasoline powered car.
So why not hybrids, they also help reduce the emissions in the air and save at the pump. Plus more hybrid models are on the way.

My opinion of the whole ehtanol vs. hybrids is domestic car companies have no intrests in hybrids, for one it’s fuel efficency doesn’t out weigh the cost. Which people are not willing to pay the price that they are offering. Secondly it’s a cheaper way for domestic car companies to help push ethanol cars to compete against import cars. Also it seems in the flexfuel lineup that only the big trucks and suv’s and a few mid sized cars like the impala, avenger. But not compacts or sub compact cars. I believe that hydrids are more effecient and will save you more in long run. Plus Honda’s and Toyotas are better quaility vehicles anyway.

So why not hybrids?

Sadly, that car is not available in large volumes or for a price that the average US household can afford.

Oil is going up fast, gasoline is going up fast. Yes, food prices are rising, partly because of a massive drought in Australia and other regions of the world and partly because of higher grain prices, but the largest driver of rising food costs is China and India whose populations are beginning to buy meat and milk.

Ethanol isn’t the problem. It isn’t the entire solution either, but it has a role as part of the solution, at least in the short run.

Because of the demand of corn prices has to be raised on milk/dairy products, and eggs. $4.50 for a gallon of milk? $2.45 for a quart of milk? Is that really a short term solution? Why not buy a hybrid and use less gasoline than switching over to another fuel source which is not available in our state yet. To me it doesn’t make sense.
I personally would not be intrested in paying for ethanol to get the same mileage…. and also having to pay more for the stuff I eat just because I want to use a renewable energy source. If any renewable resource that I would use would be hydrogen. Hydrogen is promising, hydrogen cars will already be available in 2008 from the honda clarity, bmw 7series. Although they are for lease only right now I’d rather wait for them to available for an average consumer than to have a quick fix. Plus H-ICE is another option, it’s much more cleaner to run hydrogen than ehtanol.