Here’s a great way to reduce the artificially induced doubling of the price of a gallon of gas: Reduce how far a gallon of gas will propel your car.
That’s what Corn Pop just did by issuing a diktat – these are styled “executive orders” to make them seem less diktaty – that “gas” will henceforth be 85 percent gas rather than 90 percent. Another 5 percent of the stuff you pump will be ethanol – alcohol derived from corn.
Supposedly, this will reduce the cost of a gallon since ethanol is “renewable” and made right here, in the USSA. Actually, it will reduce the fuel efficiency of every car that burns it because alcohol contains substantially less energy (BTUs) than gasoline. So you’ll pay a bit less – maybe – but you’ll go less far.
And so, pay more often.
Isn’t it grand?
Corn Pop pays off the corn lobby – the agribusiness cartels that control the corn in this country – and Americans get to pay more, again.
They will also pay more in other ways.
For food, for instance. Corn diverted to make fuel means less corn for feed – for cattle. And chickens and pigs and every other iteration of livestock that eats corn. You’ll pay more to get to and from the store and while at the store, you’ll pay more for what’s in the store.
That’s what Corn Pop has in store for you.
If you own an older car, there is something worse in store for you. Unless your car was designed to handle “gas” that is 15 percent alcohol, it will not do well on Corn Pop. Alcohol is caustic to rubber and plastic parts not made to handle it – and many cars made before the early 2000s were not made to handle it. Some specifically warn about using E15 or higher, with injunctions that doing so may void warranty coverage – which of course is no longer applicable for most of these cars. That means the owner will be left holding the bag for any damages to his vehicle caused by Corn Pop.
Same goes for outdoor and recreational power equipment, which in many cases also came with (and still comes with) warning labels to not use E15 or higher.
Which brings us to what this Great Cornholio’ing may in fact be all about. Could it be possible that Corn Pop – or those who change his diapers – are using the public upset over their doubling of gas prices as the “crisis” to diktat a measure which will accelerate the retirement of the older cars that present an impediment to the cattle-prodding of the populace into electric cars?
There has been a great deal of talk among the hoi polloi about evading “electrification” – and the tandem Big-Brothering of new cars, generally – by hanging on to older cars made before cars got Big Brothery. Cars that did not come with “advanced driver assistance technology – i.e., driver pre-emption “technology” – and which were not “connected” to anything except whoever had their hand on the wheel.
Cars that were – that are – readily repairable by almost anyone who can read a manual and has the gumption to turn a wrench – very much the opposite of recent-vintage cars, which are so forbiddingly electronicized one needs a degree in electrical engineering as well as thousands of dollars’ worth of proprietary diagnostic technology only a dealer can afford (and has access to) in order to perform even basic service.
In other words cars that serve to liberate rather than enserf their owners – who actually do own them, as the cars are generally paid-for. What is wanted, of course, is more paying. Serially. Forever. Ge thee on the monthly revolving debt-service plan. Never own anything – and be happy.
As for outdoor power equipment, the implications there are interesting as well. It is known – because they have let it be known – that hoi polloi ought not live in the country; ought not to have land, especially. It is harder to own land when you cannot mow the grass – because your mower (or tractor) has been ruined by “gas” adulterated with alcohol. There may of course be E15-compatible replacement equipment available – for now. But it will cost you more than perhaps you can afford. So as to make it harder and harder – eventually/ideally – impossible for you to live where they don’t want you to.
By the way – and also of interest – ethanol burned en masse in cars is known (or at least, it is said) to be a health hazard, according to both the EPA and CDC. It causes or contributes to coughing and inflamed/damaged airways in people’s lungs, worsens existing respiratory conditions such as asthma and bronchitis as well as increases general susceptibility to infections.
What happened to all that overweaning “concern” about “public health”? Only when it suits.
And now, it doesn’t.
. . .
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Dumbnutz doesn’t realize that a stupid move like this will add to inflation. Since you will be getting less energy from a gallon of gasoline, you will need to buy more to drive the same distances ( or get the equivalent output). Thus, that will increase the demand for gasoline and if supply does not increase, prices will continue to rise. On an individual basis, the difference might not be much, but over 10’s of millions of vehicles over many months, things will add up. But the leftists, like Corn Pop, would never understand anything so complicated.
I started moving back to living a more agrarian lifestyle a few years ago. I’ve still got my chainsaw, weedwacker, pressure washer, etc., but I also work with a hoe, shovel, pitchfork, rake, etc. If you tear the entire lawn out, you never have to mow it again. A goat is extremely efficient at keeping the weeds down. I have a generator to pump water from the well if the power goes out, but I’m looking for a manual hand pump when I run out of good quality gas.
They are governing as if they already know this falls election results. 😉
The Washington post had two editorials this past weekend spoiling Biden’s e15 diktat. Color me shocked. Not for the reasons I might think, but still. Broken clock you know.
Wonder what It will come to.
How will my (3) beloved 5 speed Saturn Twin Cams survive 15% ethanol ?
(great little vehicles –5 minutes puts 75 lbs gas into tank then proceed 400 miles).
Who wants to haul around a 800 lb battery that degrades even with very slow charge?
BN rails adjoin our ranch so I watch 130 car freights pass by. Lots of ethanol fuel
plus high fructose corn syrup tankers to hook up at Pepsi bottlers.
Hi Ignatious,
I like those old Saturns, too. I got to test drive them when they were brand-new, back in the early-mid ’90s. They were light, nimble and fun to drive – something sorely lacking in anything new.
Second that Eric,
My son had a Saturn (bought used) for the few years he lived in California, sold it for a bit more than he paid for it when he moved back this way. Now we both wish he’d kept it.
I have a Saturn Vue (5-speed manual transmission as the automatics were junk) with 273,000 miles and the engine has never needed major repairs. Between wheel bearings and struts / shocks, that is pretty much the only major service needed. Regular oil changes (seasonal 4 times a year regardless of mileage) also helps.
Eric,
I did a little more digging, because my bike is only good for E10. From what I can gather E15 has been permitted to be sold for some time, but it was banned in summer due to causing smog. What Creepy Joe’s order does is permit E15 to be sold; it doesn’t appear to be displacing E10 as of yet.
Creepy Joe lifted the ban on E15 summer sales in order to lower the price at the pump, since E15 is less expensive than E10 or E0 fuel. By doing so, he can say to the sheeple, “See, I did something about your pain at the pump!” The order also throws a serious bone to the corn lobby and Big Ag; it’s ROI for their generous political contributions to the DC Uniparty. IOW, it’s a cheap, political stunt.
What are our options for buying uncontaminated gasoline? I’m assuming it will be more expensive, but I want my vehicles to live.
We have an ethanol free station in my area; the only problem is that it’s 20-30 minutes away. Thankfully, my car can handle E15; I don’t know about my bike though.
Corn Pop was a bad dude.
Eric,
Didn’t Orange Man first propose E15? I seem to remember that he did. Did he just float the idea, or did he implement it, so as to take effect now?
Yeah, OM DID at least float E15! I remember because I had to look up in my car’s manual to see that it can handle E15.
The John Gill President’s handlers just seem to act without thought or consequence. When Obama upped to E10 last time there was an international food crisis. This caused the Arab Spring (falsely named) which was a food revolt, which as all revolts which start over righteous causes become overtaken by tyrannical forces. What do you think will be the consequences of this act?
I hope we actually impeach this bastard. Yea, Kamala is worse, but she is arrogant enough to replace the current John Gill Handlers with her own group of idiots which we can at least enjoy the folly and more importantly… by ridding us the burden of still not having an woman president. This will remove Hillary’s only claim to the thrown.
As Longshanks said in Braveheart: “As King you must look for the good in any situation.”
I actually don’t think Kamala, as much as I dislike her, could possibly be more toxic and evil than Biden. Biden is a special case of evil.
Well she certainly climbed the ladder in the traditional way- on her knees…
I wonder if the people that cheer for this in the MSM have ever heard of the phrase “phase separation” and how it refers to ethanol gasoline? Well their listeners will once they get the repair bill. Referencing one of the pictures I can say that there’s lots of interesting stuff on the Agco Automotive website but I do miss their podcast however.
Using corn to make fuel is in effect mining our top soil, and no civilization has ever outlived its top soil. For the sake of making the corporate welfare payment to agri-business.
There’s fewer acres of corn being set out this year because input costs are significantly higher. e.g. The same nitrogen fertilizer that cost $200/ton last year is now approaching $700/ton. Farmers are switching to soybeans because their input cost is lower. Not to mention other costs soaring like diesel, chemical herbicide and pesticides, etc. Russia is a key supplier of nitrogen fertilizer (due to volume of natural gas. China is the key supplier of ag chemicals (cuz we can’t make anything here). Expect cotton prices to sky as well. Cotton takes significant more input cost than corn.
Chicago corn futures are edging higher again this morning, after a big pop yesterday. Chart:
https://futures.tradingcharts.com/intraday/ZCK22
Turn this chart upside down, and it tracks the popularity polls of ‘Biden’ — currently at 33% and falling.
‘But I’m a WAR PRESIDENT,’ Joe seethes to his poll doctors.
The price reduction statement is an outright lie.
Several weeks ago, when gas prices were the highest, I went by a station that sold 87 octane for $4.29/gal. On their sign below that they also had the price for E85, which is 85% ethanol. It was the low, low, lowlow price of $4.25!!!
This just reinforced my conclusion that it was all contrived BS and certified what you’ve been saying for years, Eric.
However, arguing mileage, energy density, kilowatt equivalents to gasoline and such is like arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It’s a Religion to these people. No reason or logic will convince them their Faith is flawed. Besides, they get a kick out of ordering people around.
That means you are paying less per gallon but certainly more per kilowatt which also means more per mile. I don’t have to actually do the math to figure that out with those numbers.
Eric. – Your article titles always make for a good laugh or smile. Thanks for bringing a little humor everyday, in a nut bar world.
My pleasure, Tim!
Humor is important these days, especially…
There is no such thing as free.
the price will be paid in less gas mileage, higher food prices, more maintenance, or in some other way.
I remember in history class when we talked about how the constitution was created to give the federal govt control of energy supplies and methods. Good times
So will the price of gasoline be cheaper in October or more expensive? My guess is suddenly prices will plummet starting in September. Reasons given will be the end of the summer travel season, and of course the great job O’Biden did bringing the prices down despite the mad Russian Putin. Just in time to vote for the Democrats in the midterms of course.
Have to reduce the miles driven by 50 percent these days, which is good, the truck will last longer.
I use premium gas, but alternate back to 10 percent alcohol. Gasoline used to be red with all of the lead in it and had an octane of 104. Lead deposited on the valves, better engines don’t need lead in the gas.
An alcohol lamp burns a low heat flame, place some gasoline in a one cup alcohol lamp, insert the wick, light it with a match. Well, don’t, the lamp might explode. Alcohol lamps are used in greenhouses to juice carbon dioxide into the greenhouse inside air.
Spent corn mash is used as animal feed, it is not waste anymore.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170607123831.htm
In 1985 corn was selling for 1.68 USD per bushel. That’s when the push began to build ethanol plants using corn. You’ll sell more of the corn crop. The supply chain for the consumption of surplus corn was created. Got to have window wash, takes alcohol.
Going to need plenty of water too. You do not eat field corn, it is for feed. Grow barley for beer.
Big blizzard going on out there, about two feet of snow so far, the storm will last until tomorrow evening. 35 mph winds, snowfall is horizontal. It’ll take days to dig out.
Field corn can absolutely be eaten, when picked early. It is also eaten a lot in things like corn chips. And cooked with a lot in things as corn meal.
The GMO Roundup Ready corn seed sprayed with Roundup herbicide after emergence then sprayed with fungicides to prevent fungal disease won’t be worth eating the cobs. I have seen plenty of corn smut and rye ergot.
All sorts of corn varieties for commercial production. White corn for grits.
In the old days, eating the early field corn meant you avoided corn worm infestation.
I’ll wait for locally grown sweet corn not the field corn out there these days.
Bodacious is the sweet corn seed of choice.
From a Harley Davidson owner’s manual:
“Fuels with an ethanol content of up to 10% (E10) may be used in your motorcycle without affecting vehicle performance.
United States customers: The United States Clean Air Act prohibits the use of gasoline blends containing greater than 10% ethanol in motorcycles.”
Real Einsteins running the show! Hey CornPop ignorance of the law is no excuse!
And for four wheels better check your owners manual for a warranty violation unless you’ve got a FlexFuel rig I’d steer clear of their quacksoline.
‘Corn Pop pays off the corn lobby.’ — eric
And right on cue, Chicago corn futures soar to their highest since 2012 (chart):
https://tinyurl.com/3jpzwwnw
Meanwhile natural gas — needed to refine ethanol, and also to make LNG for freezing euro-peons — has ripped more than 50% higher since the Ukrainian war started.
Are we having fun yet?
Ethanol can be separated from gasoline simply by adding water to the ethanol / gasoline mix. The water will force the ethanol to separate from the gas on the bottom and can easily be drained out making ethanol-free gasoline.
That Lowers the octane and then you also get toxic water to dispose of. Best to just find non ethanol fuel for your small engines. You can buy 2 year stable 95+ octane E-0 by 5 or 55 gallon barrels. Some gas stations also just have a pump for ethanol free gas (usually 91 octane)
I looked at the price of non-ethanol this morning at our local gas station. $5.00gal. Next time I am going to bite the cost and fill up. Will run current tank to as close as empty as I can without running out.
Fake, stupid and dangerous (to car engines) solution to a fabricated problem. They’re mocking us.
This is just evil, starving the peasants while gimping their cars, not to mention how it is contrary to actual science regarding efficiency, emissions, etc. Our overlords are speeding up their push to enserf us all.
It’s a long way to the District of Criminals, and they wouldn’t want hundreds of thousands of the unwashed peasants throwing their pitchforks and torches in the back of their monster trucks and heading that way. And when they get hungry, they won’t even have the ambition to go…
Apparently this isn’t a 15% ethanol mandate but rather allowing 15% ethanol to be sold in the summer. Most likely due to how ethanol laced gasoline goes to the gas state so much easier when warm creating undesirable emissions and smog.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-allow-higher-ethanol-fuel-sales-summer-check-gas-prices-2022-04-12/
Since we have a lot of fishing lakes here, we have a lot of gas stations selling gasoline that doesn’t contain corn alcohol. I might be using that for more than just my lawnmower and outboard motor.
Our bifactional ruling party has to be ejected from power. The bureaucrats who write these endless regulations need a one-way trip to the rice paddies to spend their lives picking crops. I’m hopeful the sane will resume control of our society.
RE: “I’m hopeful the sane will resume control of our society.”
Unless I misunderstood, So much is wrong with that sentence, I won’t even try & unpackage it all, I’m not getting enough done today as is.
https://usawatchdog.com/the-west-needs-wwiii-martin-armstrong/
‘The West needs World War III.’ — Martin Armstrong
Assume that Armstrong is right, and the economy is being put on a war footing.
Oil (imported, at the margin) needs to be conserved for military needs.
Whereas ethanol can be made from US-grown corn, and refined with US-produced natural gas. This reduces dependence on imported oil.
Have you bought war bonds today, comrades?
>Oil (imported, at the margin) needs to be conserved for military needs.
Particularly jet fuel, I would guess.
Note I said guess.
Ethanol Is Worse for the Climate Than Gasoline, Study Finds
clearing more and more grassland to grow biofuel may actually create 93 times the greenhouse gases than will be saved by the fuel generated on that land on an annual basis, according to a recent paper in Science.
Apart from the scientific evidence that ethanol-based particles in air can kill people and make them sick, more recent scientific analysis links corn for ethanol to declining bee populations, with potentially catastrophic implications for many other high-value agricultural crops (almonds, apples) that depend on these insects for pollination.
A recent study found that declines in bee populations are greatest in areas of intense agriculture in the Midwest corn belt and California’s Central Valley, both of which have few of the flowering species, such as goldenrod, that are so important to bee survival. “These results,” the study noted, “reinforce recent evidence that increased demand for corn in biofuel production has intensified threats to natural habitats in corn-growing regions.”
The Environmental Working Group’s Emily Cassidy has written that moving from E10 to E30 would mean “more carbon emissions, more toxic pollutants into drinking water, more toxic algae blooms, and higher water bills for Midwestern residents.”
the RFS increased corn prices by 30% and the prices of other crops by 20%, which, in turn, expanded US corn cultivation by 2.8 Mha (8.7%) and total cropland by 2.1 Mha (2.4%) in the years following policy enactment (2008 to 2016). These changes increased annual nationwide fertilizer use by 3 to 8%, increased water quality degradants by 3 to 5%, and caused enough domestic land use change emissions such that the carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the RFS is no less than gasoline and likely at least 24% higher
The increased demand for corn also spilled over onto other crops, increasing soybean prices by 19% [−8%, 72%] and wheat by 20% [2%, 60%]
The combined changes in the intensity of corn production and extent of cropland caused 7.5% more reactive nitrogen (N) from synthetic fertilizer to be applied annually to the landscape (Table 1). This contributed to a 5.3% increase in nitrate (NO3−) leached annually from agricultural land due to the RFS. Such nitrate losses occurred through vertical seepage below the root zone, where nutrients are no longer accessible to crops, and have been implicated in widespread groundwater contamination throughout the United States with major public health consequences
We found that greater use of N fertilizer increased nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions by 8.3% NOTE: (they are banning diesels because of this)
https://www.treehugger.com/ethanol-worse-for-climate-than-gasoline-study-5219116
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2101084119
Crisis + Reaction = Solution. Same as it ever was. Only now the hits come at an increased pace. Embrace the suck fellow muricans. This is only chapter one. Just one more way to destroy our freedom of movement.
Ethanol fuel is our longest-running bipartisan political scam.
Burning corn for fuel isn’t just thermodynamically futile — it’s an open declaration of war on the food-insecure, formerly known as peasants.
Push already has come to shove in developing countries, where Sri Lanka and Peru saw food riots last week.
Just how far does Jackass Joe want to push his own hoi polloi, many of whom are armed with weapons more effective than sharp sticks, clubs and torches?
‘Biden’ perfectly fits the profile of isolated, uninformed gerontocrats a generation ago in places such as Poland, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia.
They didn’t even know anything unusual was happening, till it was already over.
Merry Ceaușescu Christmas, Mr Biden!
>Sri Lanka and Peru saw food riots last week.
… and gasoline rationing in Sri Lanka reported today.
it’s crazy to use corn for this when food shortages are on the horizon. part of the starvation depopulation agenda
ATTENTION: Also they burn up about two gallons of fossil fuel in producing one gallon of ethanol. insane morons…..
Corn ethanol no better—and probably worse—than burning gasoline, study says
Efforts to reduce carbon pollution using ethanol appear to have backfired.
And it infuriates me because I don’t like running high ethanol in my car! Alcohol pulls in moisture from the atmosphere (why it’s impossible to have 100% ethanol under normal conditions, it pulls in water from the air and dilutes itself) and that water will separate out in the tank if not carefully controlled.
Ethanol destroys sensors and engines.