Hey California...Why Wait Until 2030 If You Want To Meet Energy and Environment Goals? Ethanol Can Make It Happen Now!
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By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
THE AUTO CHANNEL
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AUTO CENTRAL - June 10, 2015: Later today, a meeting will be taking place in Sacramento (California's capital), to examine California Governor Jerry Brown's new energy and climate proposal calling for a 50 percent reduction in petroleum use by 2030.
The event will be broadcast LIVE over the Internet for those in the world who are not available to personally attend. It begins at 2:30PM PST and can be seen at http://www.realclearpolitics.com/topic/in_the_news/california_energy_challenge.
The invitation to attend or watch the live stream reads, "A panel of thought leaders in policy, academia and industry will convene in Sacramento to debate (and) examine whether California can balance climate and clean air goals while still meeting America's most populous state's significant energy requirements, transportation demands and economic prosperity."
If man-made climate change is occurring...If additional clean air measures are necessary...If California's economic prosperity is in jeopardy...then why wait until 2030? California, and America, and most of the world has the solution right now, today.
The solution doesn't require significant engine conversion; it doesn't require futuristic technology or not-yet-available innovation. It merely requires taking the blinders off, and the gags out of public officials' mouths to inform the public that they should use more ethanol in their gasoline-powered vehicles, and ethanol-based bio-diesel in their diesel-powered vehicles.
Government officials and business leaders simply have to tell the truth about ethanol. They have to stop the pernicious lies and gross exaggerations about the effects of ethanol on the vast majority of vehicles on the road. If public officials and business leaders don't know the truth then they should be allowed to hear it without interference from Big Oil's checkbook.
Virtually every single gasoline-powered vehicle manufactured since the mid-1990's can use high level blends of ethanol-gasoline fuel; blends that are much higher in ethanol than E10 or E15. The very vast majority of gasoline-powered vehicles on the road were manufactured after the mid-1990's.
If California thinks they have the power to make demands on automobile manufacturers, and they do think so, then California should mandate that all automobile manufacturers extend their warranties to include the use of higher level blend ethanol-gasoline fuels. If California can ram electric-powered vehicle mandates down the manufacturers' throats, then this should be a snap. Why would it be a snap? Because whereas building electric cars costs every manufacturer thousands of dollars in profit, ethanol acceptance would require little if any new capital outlay. Everybody would be happy, and healthy, and more prosperous.
The only people who would not be happy is OPEC and Big Oil, you know, the people who brought us poisonous tetraethyl-lead gasoline, gasoline with MTBE, oil spills, explosions, wars to defend their foreign oil fields, and hundreds of thousands of dead or wounded American service men and women. If California is planning on big changes anyway by 2030 - changes that will have profound financial effects on the oil industry - then why wait? Do we need more dead soldiers, sailors, and airmen? Does California need to be further hurt financially? If man-made global warming/cooling is really happening do we really need to wait until more damage is done?
All that has to happen is for Jerry Brown to call a press conference, step up to the microphone, scratch his head thoughtfully, give a little "aw shucks" grin, and announce: "You know folks, it turns out that ethanol really is safe to use in your cars and trucks. It turns out that we let the oil industry do what the tobacco industry did for so many years...lie. So please start using more ethanol in your gasoline vehicles immediately. Please start using more ethanol-based bio-diesel immediately. Thank you and have a nice day."
That's all that Jerry Brown has to do. It will help California, it will help America, and it will help the world.
Oh, and if Brown wanted to announce that he's cancelling the stupid high-speed train and shifting the money to build desalinization plants and pipelines to bring down water from Washington or Canada, this might be the perfect opportunity to finally do something for the people who have been so good to his family for so long.
