Have Electric Cars finally killed muscle cars???

[81cutlass]

I haven't taken the time to watch the 'ethanol is bad' video-

But does he take any mention of the DDG (dry distillers grain) and the protein content that's extracted from the corn as it's not part of ethanol production and then fed to cattle? Basically you still get a sizeable, energy dense feed source for livestock and remove the starch which you can get elsewhere.

People are like OMG ethanol removes food production but field corn isn't traditionally the type that's edible and goes primarily to livestock feed or corn syrup. We don't need corn syrup and artificial sweeteners in our diets and yeah some goes to livestock as long as you pull out the useful protein and nutrients and turn the sugar to fuel it's not like your out all that much.

 

[69hurstolds]

We don't need corn syrup and artificial sweeteners in our diets

Speak for yourself. 🙂

 

[Hurricane77]

I haven't taken the time to watch the 'ethanol is bad' video-

But does he take any mention of the DDG (dry distillers grain) and the protein content that's extracted from the corn as it's not part of ethanol production and then fed to cattle? Basically you still get a sizeable, energy dense feed source for livestock and remove the starch which you can get elsewhere.

People are like OMG ethanol removes food production but field corn isn't traditionally the type that's edible and goes primarily to livestock feed or corn syrup. We don't need corn syrup and artificial sweeteners in our diets and yeah some goes to livestock as long as you pull out the useful protein and nutrients and turn the sugar to fuel it's not like your out all that much.

Yeah, so those are both, at least indirectly, food production. And that argument will really get the vegans all riled up as they point out how bad eating meat is for the environment.

 

[81cutlass]

Yeah, so those are both, at least indirectly, food production. And that argument will really get the vegans all riled up as they point out how bad eating meat is for the environment.

I might be misunderstanding-

Right, but the protein from the corn still goes to livestock for food, it's not going to fuel production, so there's nothing lost there. The sugar and bio material that is in the corn can be replaced with less nutrient dense ruffage like soybean stalks or alfalfa.

And the starch from the corn goes into fuel, so yes you are taking sugar out of the food cycle, but we already have more than enough sugar in our diet, so removing a small pie of the sugar isn't a bad thing.

 

[Hurricane77]

I might be misunderstanding-

Right, but the protein from the corn still goes to livestock for food, it's not going to fuel production, so there's nothing lost there. The sugar and bio material that is in the corn can be replaced with less nutrient dense ruffage like soybean stalks or alfalfa.

And the starch from the corn goes into fuel, so yes you are taking sugar out of the food cycle, but we already have more than enough sugar in our diet, so removing a small pie of the sugar isn't a bad thing.

Certainly it's not as cut and dried as various special interest groups (on both sides) would have us believe.

Sure, there are useful byproducts from ethanol production. But what are the comparative yields per acre for ethanol, corn meal and corn feed? I have no idea. From a dollar value standpoint, I'd guess the ethanol is quite valuable and then whatever else you can squeeze out of it is a bonus. Using by products of various agricultural process as feed sources is fairly common.

But according to what I can find online is that there are about 3 times the number of acres of corn planted compared to wheat. Something like 90 millions acres vs 30 million for wheat. Whereas here in Canada, we're like 22 million acres of wheat and only ~3.5 million for corn. One of the points of the video, and the article (https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2101084119) which it's based on isn't that it's just taking corn production out of the food chain, it that arable land is being used for corn planted primarily for the production of fuel rather than planting it for other food producing crops - not just corn.

But that was just one of the findings of the study. Another other being that increasing the demand for 'fuel corn' has caused in increase in the overall price of corn and other grains compared to 'Business As Usual'. How they actually were able to compare actual prices to what prices could have been would be a very good question for the researchers since they're trying to compare to what might have been.

But the main conclusion of the study wasn't about the economics of ethanol, it was basically that producing and burning ethanol actually released MORE green house gases than just using gasoline. It really wasn't focused on societal impacts (wars etc.), other environmental impacts (Deep Water Horizon, fracking etc.) or even the economics, but they did include the economics part as something they observed in their study.

 

[DRIVEN]

I had to jump start a 3 year old Hyundai Ioniq plug-in yesterday for an engineer I was working with. Supervibe got me home without incident. True story.

 

[motorheadmike]

Tell me you are a hypocrite without telling me that you are a hypocrite.

Biden Administration Plans To Allow Dirty E15 Gas To Be Used Year Round

The move is meant to alleviate rising gas prices, but potentially at the expense of air quality

jalopnik.com

Maybe we'll be deregulating the mining and refining of natural resources needed to produce EV to rapidly offset this heretical action?

 

[Bonnewagon]

Now for something completely different. Electric outboards! I can't wait! Imagine trolling along silently. Sneaking up on the skinny water flats all quiet like. No gas, no oil, no exhaust, no noise. Charge with dockside power. Oh man, those fishes don't have a chance now.

 

[Wageslave]

I can only imagine if a marina electric charger costs as much as marina gas.

 

[Supercharged111]

I can only imagine if a marina electric charger costs as much as marina gas.

Solar roof!