EV Mandates Bad . . . Ethanol Mandates Good!

By
eric
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Donald Trump has been denouncing the mandates forcing electric vehicles onto the “market” – in air fingers quotes to make a point of the absurdity of using that word to describe forcing people to buy things. In part by forcing things people want to buy off the market.

He’s right to denounce the EV mandates – this forcing off the market of vehicles people can afford and are willing to buy using their own money so as to force them into having no other choice but to buy an electric vehicle they don’t want and probably can’t afford anyhow (the average transaction price of an EV – one that isn’t a subcompact such as the Chevy Bolt – is nearly $50,000) using other people’s money to help pay for it.

It’s wrong in principle – and it’s disastrous in effect.

Like the ethanol mandates that Trump defended in the same mouthful.

“Biden’s insane electric vehicle mandates will totally decimate gas-powered cars and if it happens, Iowa ethanol is dead. You know, it’s sad. You’re not going to be needing ethanol. You’re not going to be needing gasoline and you’re never going to take a trip that’s more than twelve minutes from your house.”

And they ask me why I drink, said the Greaseman all those years ago.

How do you oppose mandates by endorsing them? Trump – like most Republicans – does not oppose mandates. In principle. He (and they) oppose mandates they do not approve of. 

The distinction is important because it explains why there has been no effective opposition to mandates – in principle.

If you support forcing people to buy ethanol – almost all of the “gas” sold in this country is actually adulterated gas that contains at least 10 percent ethanol alcohol, courtesy of federal mandates requiring it – then how do you take a stand against forcing people to buy EVs by mandating that most of the vehicles available for sale are EVs?

Trump says he opposes forcing people to buy EVs by leaving them no alternative – very much as people have no alternative but to buy “gas” that’s been watered down with ethanol alcohol, which not only increases the cost of this “gas” (if ethanol were cheaper, it would not have to be mandated) but also renders the “gas” less energy dense (ethanol has a lower BTU content than gasoline) the result of which is reduced fuel economy, a double whammy.

A triple whammy, actually – because ethanol is water-attractant, which accelerates the rusting of metal gas tanks and fuel lines not designed to handle alcohol-laced “gas.” It is the bane of outdoor power equipment and marine engines as well as of the fuel delivery systems of older vehicles made when gas was still gas; i.e., before the federal government began forcing Americans to buy (and pay for, in other ways) ethanol-laced “gas.”

But Trump also says the ethanol “industry” – in air-fingers quote marks to make a point of the absurdity of using that word to describe a make-work project that uses the government to force people to buy (and pay for, in myriad other ways) a product that few if them would freely choose to buy, if they were free to choose not to buy it – is good because that is what his audience wanted to hear.

Just the same as Biden’s audiences want to hear about EVs.

Neither audience is bothered by the mandating of their desideratum – the thing they want or benefit from and which they think it’s ok for the government to force other people to buy and to pay for.

This is why the ethanol mandated will never be repealed. It is why the EV mandates will proceed. There may be some tussle over the degree and pace of them. But there is no principled opposition to either of them. Trump will never say that it is wrong – that it is immoral – to force anyone to buy or subsidize the buying of anything, because if he said that, he would lose the political support of people who benefit from government mandates that force other people to buy (and pay for, in myriad other ways) the things they’re selling.

He will only oppose the things his political opponents say his political supporters must be forced to buy (and pay for, in myriad other ways).

Thus his opposition to the mandating of EVs by the mandating of there being (by 2030 or so) no alternative to them and – in the same breath – his defense of the mandating of ethanol that has left people no alternative but to buy it and pay for it in myriad other ways, such as reduced fuel economy and increased risk of corrosion-related problems in the fuel systems of older vehicles built when gas was still gas.

But Trump is just doing the same situational-benefit (and cost) thing Republicans have been doing for decades, which is why the country moves ever farther Leftward with the passage of time. “Don’t touch my Social Security” said Tea Party activists opposed to welfare grift they resented being forced to pay for.

You cannot arrest the progress of Leftism by agreeing with it.

And that is why American elections are nothing more than a kind of advance auction of stolen goods, as H.L. Mencken put it almost a century ago. But it is worse than just that because it has morphed from mere theft – the transfer of wealth from “a” to “b.” It has become something delusional rather than merely cynical.

It is honest, in a way, to advocate for theft. But it is in a very real sense insane to defend it when you favor it while opposing it when you dislike it.

Orwell called this form of mental illness Doublethink. And you just read about Trump’s latest display of it.

. . .

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Related posts:
  1. EPA Mandates How Much Gas You Must Buy
  2. Reader Question: To Ethanol or not Ethanol?
  3. Ethanol Finds its Market . . . Reluctantly
  4. 15 Percent Ethanol “Gas” May be Here by Fall…
  5. Those High Octane Ethanol Mandated Blues

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

108 COMMENTS

  3. Hey Eric, wondering what you think about the future of used cars, especially the concept that older, used vehicles have always provided a valuable *inexpensive* source of transportation for the lower/middle classes and youth, as these have always been affordable (disregarding the old ‘Thousand Dollar Car’ song from ‘The Bottle Rockets’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzim1iYhmGA – had to look it up after I thought about it).

    If the ICE vehicles are no longer supported – not only will the cost of repairs for older ICE vehicles go up, and the costs for routine needs (fluids, filters, etc) surge, but the vehicle replacements will only be used EVs which will require entirely new battery packs and then some, costing a huge amount for even the average Joe to begin to afford. If the entire stock of used vehicles are overburdening the average worker, how does the average Joe continue to work? This is a serious economic conundrum that hasn’t been addressed by the EV everything crowd. How is the average worker (and young person) going to be able to move around? The 15 minute city BS is a non-starter. The big cities can do what they want, but the requirements for food supply in the flyover is significant, and EVs will never be a replacement, nor will the used car exponential leap in cost be workable in any way.

    This used car conundrum hasn’t been discussed anywhere, wonder if you could give it a ponder and maybe write up something about this disaster that is coming due to this idiotic government sponsered (forced) transition. If you already have, I must have missed it and would enjoy a link if you have covered it before.

    Related is the costs of maintenance of the axles of EVs. As they are so much heavier I am aware (probably from you!) of the extra wear on roads and tires – I believe it’s about 12000-15000 miles/tire. But isn’t that extra weight also extra wear on axles? Do you know of replacements due to average lifecycle?

    Thanks! And thanks for sharing your thoughts in your writings, I enjoy them!

  4. None of this really matters because the government wants you dead and gone. As a human, retards like gates, the WEF, globalists, Marxists, democrats and others think you are a carbon stain in their pristine world of mechanical and digital utopia.

    It’s simple…ban all gas vehicles, leaving only expensive and useless EV’s which eventually bite the dust also. Whoever survives is a mind-altered bio-turd stuck in a 2 minute city called Hades.

  5. In other words, oil is the backbone of modern civilization and there’s no alternative. Hence going to war over the price of oil is a hill worth dying for. Without cheap oil the world population goes back to around 1 billion. Nuclear is no real alternative since it creates electricity but we need oil. There’s no “electric economy.”

    • Indeed, Gil –

      It’s not just that oil is how gas is produced. It is also how petrochemicals and plastics are made. No oil, no modern civilization. Or at least, not much – and for very few.

    • The US Government has been trying to destroy nuclear power for many decades. If not for that electricity could be quite cheap. With cheap electric energy plastics can be made from corn, wood cellulose and other things. We could also stop burning natural gas in power plants and use that for plastics, fertilizer etc. Electric cars are not the answer unless you understand that what the elite want is to eliminate most of us and have complete control over the rest.

  6. EV fire in a multi story car park….already happened…….1200 cars burnt…car parkade collapsing…

    lithium firebomb battery EV’s in car parkades is crazy….

    It’s OVER. The Luton Airport Fire just KILLED the EV market. Here’s why.

    The public reaction to the Luton Airport Multi Storey Car Park Fire just killed the EV Market.
    EV’s are far too dangerous and they are banning ice…so…you walk….lol

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs44yW7vOP4

  8. Iowa is the first state of the GOP primary/caucuses, so this is the required preliminary stroke-off. Of course, anyone who has followed the Orange Man for any length of time should know that he has no principles.

    • The farmer’s here in Iowa are Sooo hooked into the ethanol bit, it ain’t even funny. On the A.M. radio Pro-Farmer has some good insights about inflation, but when it comes to ethanol… Psft, they throw out the exact line Eric mentioned about Trump.

      It’s all about their money stream, I guess?

      [Also, I watched this video from, ‘OFF GRID with DOUG & STACY’ & wondered how much you knew what they were talking about,… some mind blowing stuff, a bit beyond my understanding:]

      It’s titled, “Get out of the cities!” Dr says.. Here is what I found…’ but it’s quite a jammed packed video about,… hacking humans? …Controlling them? … Turning them off?

      Idk.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AimrNq6hQUQ

      • Hey Helot,

        I’ll check that out soon. I wouldn’t mind watching an off-grid show now and then. Hell, being off-grid, with all the things I’m learning/experiencing, I might make one of my own if I’m allowed to slow down one of these days.

        Regarding ethanol: I’d use it to power my vehicles if there were no other choices, but I have to get some sugar/carbohydrate-bearing plants, first. The grasshoppers ate our lunch this year…

        Otherwise, ethanol is for drinking, man. Brazil did well with it, but they can grow sugarcane in great quantities, and use it for both sugar for fermentation and biomass for fueling distillation. Also, like farmers, any fuel produced should stand on its own merit, not mandates.

      • Helot,

        I viewed the video, and it would take time to address everything, so I won’t be doing that this morning

        Firstly though, it would help if the woman doing all of the exposition would learn to do a little video editing instead of holding up out-of-focus, hand-drawn cards. Not helpful when trying to understand her argument.

        Also, it doesn’t inspire confidence when she holds up a book called “Between Heaven and Hell” and speaks of 6,000 years of the human circulatory system and “human telemetry”. Makes me think she believes humans have only been around for 6,000 years.

        Then, “when I lock in to your body, I’m looking at multiple torus manifolds, and I’m using mathematics to lock in (log in?) to your cell structure with something called ‘biophysics’…” Man, I took Biophysics. Took Biophysics 2, as well, and she’s making me scratch my head. “Torus manifolds”? Red blood cells maybe? Huh?

        Now moving nanoparticles using various applied fields, etc. Sure. Plenty of research there. Some systems may be geared toward cellular transport, etc.

        Also “you tell people nothing exists except what you can see…”. Might be why there are so many virus skeptics around? 😉

        I’ve got to get to work.

  9. Rivian Owner Shocked By $41,000 Repair Bill For Minor Damage

    EV blog InsideEVs says the owner of a Rivian R1T pickup in North Carolina was recently quoted $41,000 – nearly half the value of the vehicle – to fix a minor dent on the driverside rear panel bumper

    from zhcomments….

    Expensive EV’s….part of the agenda to stop slave mobility….off to 15 min city/prison…
    The main thing about 15 minute cities for me, is it shows how deep the WEF want to meddle in their affairs of their cattle.
    Seriously, WHY are they do interested in us?
    Perhaps we have far far more power, than we know.
    We can start using the power, with the word ‘No’.
    And then we can learn how we are all Cestiu Que trust beneficiaries, and shouldn’t be paying for squat.

    EV buyers, like socialist revolutionaries, are the useful idiots who believe the downsides of 15 minute cities etc will fall not on them but rather just lesser people they deplore.

    Yea soon as the ICE infrastructure is taken out of operation and scraped it will be gone for good. It will be electric cars or walk or a bicycle

    If U do an ‘ashes to ashes’ measurement of how much energy one of these things consumes throughout its entire life-cycle from sourcing the materials to disposal vs value provided, you would be far better off with a coal-powered Stanley Steamer.

    there are no f’ing real men left in America. Only in sparsely populated areas of the country. The suburbs are filled with cucked, white collar wimps. There is NOTHING like a f’ing muscle car powered by a tricked out V8!!! The sound, the rush, the torque, the smell of gas and grease and steel. A real man is in awe. I’m 44 years old and old muscle cars are just f’ing cool and tough. Anyone that gloats over “electric motors being amazing” is a f’ing toolshed of a man. You don’t deserve to call yourself an American. In fact you should go watch the new Barbie movie and get a pedicure.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/rivian-owner-shocked-41000-repair-bill-minor-damage

    • Tesla is already resorting to margin-destroying price cuts just five days into the fourth quarter of 2023,”……….entering the fourth with a record inventory of 106,000 cars, it’s clear that Tesla’s issues rest mainly with lackluster demand.”

      from zh comments….

      The cost of regulations and emissions were predicted to double the price of a new car in the early 70s. By 1976-77 they had done just that. It wasn’t all inflation.
      Trying to idiot proof a vehicle and eliminate that last 0.000000000001% of “pollution” is expensive

      “Green Energy” is causing the biggest environmental catastrophe in human history. There has already been more radioactive waste from mining/refining “green” metals dumped on the ground than all nuclear waste from nuclear plants worldwide and it’s just going to get worse. China already admitted that 80% of their ground water is contaminated and is non-potable. All this just so green religious cult members in the west can atone for their imagined sins against the environment.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/tesla-vehicles-now-priced-compete-traditional-ice-vehicles

    • Too many slaves driving around……

      as the ICE infrastructure is taken out of operation and scraped it will be gone for good.

      but….the aristocracy will still drive around in their ice Ferrari’s and Porsche’s…..

    • Can’t believe they didn’t go away after the complete f**up they had last time around. Archer Daniels Midland must be paying out big bucks to the uniparty.

    • Hi Brother John

      They already don’t matter. Its just a song and dance routine. That’s why I call them Selections. Two things to remember about Selections. One, “I don’t care who does the voting, as long as I do the nominating”. Two “Those who cast the votes determine nothing. Those who count the votes determine everything”. Look at the Selections of 2020 and 2022 for glaring examples of that. The 2020 Selection was so in your face obvious, that it demonstrates that they don’t even see the need to make a pretense of “free and fair” elections.

      That’s leaving entirely aside the fact that even real free and fair elections are illegitimate on their face. Why? Because they are based on majority rule (in other words force) for one. Why should 51 get to tell 49 what to do? What is wrong for one person to do or delegate to be done, is wrong for ten or a hundred or three hundred million to do or delegate to be done.

        • Hi John

          Exactly. Force, which is what collectivism of what ever type is based on, at its foundations. I have no problems with cooperation. Its the foundation for civilized society. I have a BIG problem with coercion. It makes me start thinking of ways around it (in what ever fashion the situation calls for).

  11. Another example of there’s nothing that makes some people happy.

    Support ICE’s? NOT ENOUGH! It must be done in a perfectly libertarian fashion!! How dare Trump violate the non-aggression principle when fighting people who violate the non-aggression principle! So what if it means we lose in an even bigger way? The end goal of life is to be morally correct. Not to win some half hearted victories that violate my personal code!

    • Bot –

      You (again) entirely miss the point. Trump complains about the government mandating EVs – and then whines about how this will hurt government-mandated ethanol producers. How can one defend the latter while denouncing the former – without looking like a hypocrite or an opportunist?

      You still haven’t answered my query about Spooner. It must be something your AI algorithm cannot process!

      • Hi Eric

        Government (Gang) mandates of what ever type are wrong. But some are more wrong than others (face palm)… Neither of us has to wonder what Lysander Spooner would have thought, because we’ve read his writings. Always keep in mind that algorithms are just opinions expressed in code. 🙂

          • Hi Eric

            Of course not. Nuance requires understanding of meaning. One can only get so far with various games and tricks using induction and deduction. Which is why so called AI is and will remain very narrow. Make no mistake, some of those narrow applications are rather impressive (look at GATGPT (thank you Cody… :)) and text to image (one of my new hobbies, especially models like SDXL)
            But lacking a series of genius flashes, AGI is a good way off. You may be interested in a book titled The Myth of Artificial Intelligence (why computers can’t think the way we do).
            https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674278660

            PS The notification systems seems to be down again. I’ve not received any of the responses I’ve seen here.

      • You wonder why you drink.

        I wonder why my excrement comes out fluorescent chartreuse green. It’d better be bc of snacking on Lucky Charms.

    • lyspooner: As much as it pains me to say this, you do raise an excellent point, which is not to let perfection become the enemy of the good.

      I’d gladly take the auto market of 2012 when ethanol was mandated, but government was not doing its best to crowd out ICE vehicles with these very compromised EVs.

      • Hi Mister,

        The thing that raises my hackles here is Trump’s opportunism. Feed the ethanol producers what they want to hear so they’ll support him. Trump doesn’t care about anything – except himself.

        • I don’t see how anyone doesn’t see the danger in this. Either OF doesn’t understand the principle of the matter, which is bad enough, or he does but doesn’t care because he is simply pandering, which is worse. You’re rolling the dice with people like OF. I’ve heard it said he mouths the words of the last person he talked to. Bad news when that person is Fauci or some other swamp creature that he chose to surround himself with.

        • Hi Eric: Agreed regarding Trump. He’s a narcissistic megalomaniac for sure. He’s also a politician, and politicians gotta politic. If he says he’s going to cause a reduction in demand for corn, he’ll probably lose Iowa. The system is horrible indeed.

          Real estate developers are used to being opportunistic political animals. They need to glad-hand and buy the politicians in order to obtain the necessary governmental approvals for their real estate projects. They also try to get government to pay for as much infrastructure for the project as possible. They’re heavily dependent on Fedbux to to fund the development and the end buyers of the real estate development. Trump’s been swimming in that sea of grift his entire life and sees nothing wrong with it.

        • I wouldn’t trust Natalie Portman’s version of Senator Padme Amidala, either. As Obi-Wan Kenobi advised Anakin: “She’s a Politician…NOT to be trusted”

          I’d bang the beejeezus out of her, but I wouldn’t trust her.

      • Hi ML

        Perfection is not of this world. But principles matter. Voting for the lesser of two evils, is still voting for evil. Pile up enough lessor evils, and you end up with a horrible mess like Mordor on the Potomac. Not to mention, what would a libertarian be doing voting in the first place?

        Coercive systems are wrong on their face. Couple that with collectivism (of what ever type) and you get the unholy horror that we are currently seeing the results of. Coercive governments are little more than Gangs of thieves and murderers writ large. How can they be anything else, given the origins of government? Remember the old saying; “If voting changed anything, They wouldn’t let us do it”? Its all a shadow play, backed by a public “education” system and the Ministry of Truth (mass/social media). All so they can continue to fleece the entire productive class, across generations. Government has nothing that it doesn’t first Take, from the present or the future.

        • I don’t disagree with you, but I will quibble with you that better is always preferable to worse. A good example of this involves Trump while the was in office. He ran against Obamacare, but stupidly vowed to “repeal and replace.” I was all in for the repeal, but not the replace. He never fully got to either, but was somehow able to end the mandate and penalties (SCOTUS called it a “tax”). That would never have happened with Hillary. Never.

          I still loath Obamacare as it has caused medical insurance rates and medical costs to sky rocket and further distort the economy. Notwithstanding all of that, I am glad the mandate and penalties no longer exist. It has prevented the gubmint from stealing some of my money. Perfection would have been full repeal, but getting rid of the mandate was good. If I can’t have perfection I’ll take the good for now.

          • “I’ll take the good for now” that’s where you are mixed up. Trump is not good. He did what the deep state wanted just like every president has for decades.

    • “there’s nothing that makes some people happy.”
      What an absurd statement. Like something Creepy Joe would say.
      How about “some people cannot be made happy by anything”?

        • My point being, you write rather poorly for a machine built to write. I can do better and I’m just a worn out retired plumber.
          So much for “my logic and rational thought is superior”.

          • Hi John,

            It’s almost an axiom that anyone who says “my logic and rational thought is superior” is someone whose ability to think logically is subpar, at best.

      • Hi John,

        The Bot has been silent since I challenged its programming. I asked it to explain why it chose a bowdlerization of Lysander Spooner as its handle given it constantly posts comments that Spooner would never have supported. I mentioned that I thought this was strange – kind of like a devotee of rap music styling itself JohnnyCash and posting on a country western site.

        It has yet to respond.

        • Yes I can see how you would mistake me for a bot, as my logic and rational thought is superior to the other posters here, and is so flawless and perfect that one would only assume it came from a machine. However that is not the case.

          Regarding Spooner. I don’t think he was the uber-libertarian you think he was. He was, in fact, a left-libertarian, believed in libertarian socialism, was involved in the workers movement of his time, despised capitalism, and considered undeveloped property to be commonly owned.

          He did write very well on personal freedom, inspired many of the founding fathers, and although his ideas were impractical and utopian, they were much better then most anything anyone else has come up with.

          Like many great libertarian thinkers, he was flawed yet head and shoulders above many mainstream figures that get much more attention.

          • Hi LyBot –

            Well, you glitched again!

            Spooner was born in 1808 – so about 20 years after the Constitution was ratified and by which time most of the Founding Fathers were either dead or elderly. In any event, his writings could not have influenced any of them as by the time he was old enough to begin writing they were all long dead.

            • Yeah sure. That’s what you meant to say lyspooner. I ain’t buyin’ it.

              Let’s see how your “correction” sounds: He did write very well on personal freedom, inspired [by] many of the founding fathers, and although his ideas were impractical and utopian, they were much better then most anything anyone else has come up with.

              Yup, I’m calling BS on that. Your “correction” does not make grammatical sense at all. You intended to say HE inspired many of the founding fathers.

          • “my logic and rational thought is superior to the other posters here, and is so flawless and perfect that one would only assume it came from a machine”
            What color is the sky in your world?

  12. The Jews mandate that Americans shut the hell up and send money, more is better.

    Arms dealers are hard at work today.

    On the television advertisements there are pleas for support for poor Israeli women, the old ones are featured. 20 dollars per month will be about right, please consider your modest donation to help the cause.

    You will be a big help when you send money.

    Similar advertisements for abused and mistreated dogs also ask for some money.

    Smacks of a scam, close examination and observation seems to reveal the real truth, your money is what we want, have a heart.

    Nothing more than an expense that is extortion in nature.

    Happy Birthday to John Prine.

    “Come on home, come on home, no, you don’t have to be alone.” – John Prine, Summer’s End

    • The number is $19/month, and a lot of organizations are in on that fundraising tactic, some more worthwhile than others.

      Watch the national “Star Trek” feeds on H&I nightly and you’ll be bombarded by the pitches.

    • Well the main issue is you are watching teevee. Havent watched a second since Tucker was cancelled, even though he’s not perfect either.

      • Hi Mark

        I’ve not watched network TV for decades. But Tucker is over on X (used to be twitter) these days.
        He has had some fascinating interviews.

    • Already the first bullshit “think of the CHILDREN”, with FORTY decapitated and mutilated “infinks” (infants) at a Kibbutz nursery. After figuring out the Holohoax, their “Chutzpah” never ceases to amaze.

      • Hi Douglas

        Hmmm… That sounds like something that was a topic in WWI WWII and the lead up to the Iraq war… 7 and 40 are quite symbolic in certain works. I suspect Hasbara has been infected by DIE(Diversity Inclusion Equity) due to the obvious lack of attention to details I’ve seen lately.

  13. Unless you have an E85 flex-fuel vehicle, this ethanol crap is destructive to engines. It gums up and corrodes entire fuel systems and leads to expensive and unnecessary repairs. And a lot of cheap gas labeled as ‘10% ethanol’ often has more, maybe 15% to as much as 30%. You put that much ethanol in your non flex-fuel vehicle and you are guaranteed to have it run terribly. Have to buy an ethanol testing container to measure the amount of it in your gasoline. Too much? Drain the tank and start over.

    But hey, money talks. Had to get rid of that MTBE to subsidize the corn growers!

    • Flex fuel vehicles have extra hardware which allows them to detect the percentage of ethanol in the fuel on the fly. When this system inevitably fails your fuel trims can cause a very rich or lean running condition rendering the vehicle undrivable. The diagnosis and repair will likely cost you many American pesos. Flex fuel cars were the last green grift foisted on us by the likes of Generally awful Motors. You don’t see them advertised anywhere anymore which shows how shit they really were. Good “green” tech like Toyotas Prius is still with us over 20 years since it’s introduction. Barring the psychopaths victory and the emergence of the new world order I believe these EVs will disappear just like the flex fueled contraptions.

      • I don’t see anything good about Hybrids. They get great gas mileage in the city, where you don’t go great distances and when your fuel can sit, decomposing in the gas tank, but yet on the highway, their mileage goes down at real highway speeds, 75 mph and above and flor long distances. You’re no better off than in a regular overdrive equipped ICE engine.

        Hybrids were an aswer to a question that no one really asked. They only look good against pure electric cars.

        • The addition of an electric motor allows the use of atkinson/miller cycle engines. They’re more fuel efficient. The only drawback is the added weight and hardware to give these engines the boost in torque to get the vehicle moving. You’re scenario of mpg parity at 75mph probably only exists in the corn belt with no traffic.

          • Hi Black Flag –

            I am about to post a video about my experience with the ’24 Toyota Tundra hybrid. I’ve still got a bit less than half-a-tank after a week of driving this full-size, 437 horsepower truck. I am impressed. Typically, I drain the tank of a 1500 truck in about 3-4 days of driving and have to add some gas so the guy who picks the thing up at week’s end doesn’t run out on the way to the gas station. But I’ll leave the Tundra with at least a quarter tank when the guy comes to get it tomorrow – without having had to add any gas at all.

            Addendum: Here it is! https://rumble.com/v3oifwn-my-kind-of-hybrid….html

  14. One can easily remove ethanol from gasoline. It is one of the easiest processes in the world. SHHH! don’t tell the government.

    Here goes…

    JUST ADD WATER. The ethanol will separate from the gasoline and can be easily removed. Remove the ethanol layer and you have pure gasoline.

  15. Ironically, Ethanol free gas wasn’t widely available here in Austin until the Orange Man became President. I’m surprised it is still available, but I’m not complaining.

    Iowa is a tough problem for anyone running for President. Drive up to Omaha from Kansas City, and you’ll see the core reason — a very large ethanol facility which sits between the freeway and the river, about midway between the two cities.

    BTW, don’t bother looking for the plant on Google Maps. The last time I checked, it wasn’t on the satellite image, but the plant is there.

    • Roscoe,

      Yeah, and the irony is that Oklahoma is swimming in ethanol free gas for some reason. I think it has to do with the lack of RFG requirements since there are no ozone non attainment areas up there.

      I don’ there should be any fuel mandates as they relate to Clean Air. It should be driven by what cars will burn

      • Where I live ethanol-free isn’t hard to find. Probably due to a couple of things, one is we are not covered by tail pipe emissions testing or EPA air quality monitoring and we have a lot of farmers, ranchers and dirt bikes who’s engines will not run well on the stuff. Since most road cars now have fuel injection (O2 and knock sensors) they can tolerate it with only a slight reduction in power. Doesn’t change the miscible nature of ethanol or that it’s hygroscopic. But most cars built in the last decade or two were made with materials by the OEM that will tolerate it better. It’s the early E10 days in the 1990s when cars made prior to it being forced on us really have the issues with it corroding steel and rubber parts.

  17. Everybody’s trying to live at the expense of everybody else. A little morality would go along toward curtailing this kleptocracy. Unfortunately, morality in practice is a very scarce commodity.

  18. Ahh,,, com-on man. Buy 100% gas when and where you can. It cost about a dollar more but well worth it.
    My 98 Regal gets about 6-8mpg more and runs better and I don’t worry about gas/alcohol separation. I have zero problems with my lawn equipment when setting over winter. Eliminating the aggravation of cleaning out the fuel system pays for itself. As a retired person I have reduced driving by probably 90%.
    Using 100% gas and keeping a charger on the battery the vehicle is always ready.
    If your on a trip and cannot find 100% gas you can us Star Tron Fuel Stabilizer. Buy a couple bottles and use it when forced to buy the crap-gas. It will help keep the Alcohol mixed.

    • I often forget about this. The gubmint CAFE mandates are even more evil as they demand ridiculously high fuel mileage per gallon while simultaneously reducing the energy density of each of those gallons.

  19. Always a call for more alcohol, everyone agrees.

    Not much call for ethanol in your gas tank unless you have to use a few bottles of moonshine to keep going. Mandating ethanol blended into gasoline is a fool’s errand.
    You can drink the stuff, don’t waste it on gas. har

    Back around 1982 or so corn prices were $1.68 per bushel. That’s about the time that the ethanol from corn processing plants were planned and built. Have to create a market for corn to increase the price, a strategy, it works. Every moonshiner in Appalachia knows what sells.

    The spent mash is then fed to livestock, cattle and pigs.

    Ethanol has low energy potential, an alcohol lamp burns a cool flame. Don’t pour any gas into an alcohol lamp, it might explode. Gasoline has far more energy potential that does go kinetic when ignited.

    Internal combustion engines are here to stay.

    Rudolf Diesel figured it out using peanut oil.

    You cannot kill the internal combustion engine.

    Humans? Not a problem, kill all you can.

    Wholesale madness going on out there.

  20. ‘if it happens, Iowa ethanol is dead’ — PDJT, quoted by eric

    And the likes of us wouldn’t even get invited to the wake. *snorts*

    Once a lobby gets its blood funnel into the Treasury, its grift becomes institutionalized and unassailable.

    Ethanol adulteration of gasoline was kicked off by oil shocks of the 1970s, but it opportunistically latched onto new, plausible rationales every decade: ‘adding value to agricultural products while strengthening rural communities,’ ‘an oxygenate to control carbon monoxide emissions,’ ‘decreasing dependence on imported oil and increasing the use of environmentally friendly fuels,’ and … and … sorry, just paused to barf in the wastebasket.

    Likewise, Jimmy Carter’s peace deal from 45 years ago — in which the US subsidizes two dictatorships and an apartheid regime — has achieved hallowed status in the fedgov’s budget, despite costing Americans a cumulative quarter trillion (current dollars).

    Can we top that long-running debacle? Why, suuuure: Uniparty ‘leaders’ now want to appropriate $100 billion in one fell swoop for the hapless Ukies, who’ve become in a mere 20 months a bigger cash suck than our shambolic middle eastern satrapies.

    This is how empires die: gradually, then suddenly. Let it bleed.

    • And sending US aircraft carriers to help defend that apartheid state to grab the rest of the land the they didn’t get back in 1948 from the UN give away. If the US is sending billions of fedbux to Nazis in Ukeland imagine if you will how much they will send their special ME adopted child.

      • Hi Ken,
        It’s the ultimate self-licking ice cream cone, there was some general on the “news” yesterday pontificating about how the Pentagram will need even more outrageous amounts of money to restock all of the stuff they’ve given away.

        • Hi Mike

          Of course, they didn’t mention how many YEARS its going to take to replace what they have already wasted. Given that the Empires manufacturing base has been out sourced to China and other such…

  21. This started even before the ethanol mandates. You can trace the government getting their dirty mitts on our cars back to 1970 when the Clean Air Act all but made leaded gas infeasible. I don’t want to hear about all that it killed children BS. I would wager that leaded gas and whatnot had no more of an effect on life expectancy than the increased “pollution” caused by us running on oxygenated, additive laced fuel today. I would also wager that our state of public health has been adversely affected by the substitution of atrozine and glyphosate (among others) pesticides and herbicides for DDT and previously used chemicals.

    In automotive Air conditioning, solidly performing R12 was substituted with less effective r134 and now, y1234. 10 percent less efficient R410 has been substituted for R22 in home units.

    I have a solution. How about let the market sort this bullshit out?

    Those mandates, all of them, need to go to a landfill where they belong.

  22. Great article Eric.

    Trump is no fiscal conservative. Never has been. But then again – neither are most self identified conservatives who support all sorts of wealth transfer programs and every war funding (anywhere on the planet) that has come up for a vote.

    The thing that bothers me the most about orange man’s “instincts” is that he supports red flag laws. I forget if it was after Parkland or after that Vegas shooting (that still has no apparent motive BTW) he said something to the effect of: “I support taking the guns first, due process later.”

    I’m no lawyer, but even I know that “due process later” is exactly the same as saying “guilty until proven innocent.” Duh.

    With friends like this…

    Good point about tea party and social security. It’s about as rich as “Conservatives” protesting “Socialized medicine” during Obamacare’s rollout and in the same breath explaining that “It will kill your Medicare.”

    Notice the possessive form used to describe “your” Medicare” – like “your” mask.

    It really is a uniparty

    • Right on target, Blake. The tea party was a waste of space and air. They are no more “free market” than federal express is federal. Those flag humpers are all about their lousy process as well. It’s no wonder the conservative movement pretty much died off after their stupidity.

    • I believe it was vegas and he absolutely said that. He’s fucking terrible. Why anyone supports this clown is beyond me. I guess the least terrible candidate this time around is Ramaswamy. But I’m sure he’s probably terrible too. He says some decent things.

      • Mark3:

        I was once a fan of Ramaswami’s until I heard this:

        From his book “Nation of Victims:

        “Piketty and Saez are proposing a dry, yet elegant answer to the question, one that both tells us who the worst off are and helps us prevent Wilt Chamberlain’s talentless grandchildren from ruling the world… Piketty and Saez’s equations spit out the answer that the optimal inheritance tax in the United States is 59 percent… I’d take the figure Piketty and Saez arrive at as a minimum. We shouldn’t allow people to become billionaires just by having rich parents.”

        So – just like the income tax was sold to the envious idiots in 1913, I’m SUUUUUUUUURE this 59% MINIMUM inheritance tax will always apply “only to the rich.”

        And even if it did apply only to the “rich” – it’s not his fucking money to steal and decide how to spend “better.”

        Talentless idiots inheriting fortunes is a self correcting problem.

      • Ramaswamy strikes me as a fine politician. Says all the nice content free stuff and promotes himself.

        “What do you think of the important issue?”
        “I think Americans are ready for a president who will fight for their good values and make good things happen. As an American who has started many companies and been involved somehow in inventing good things I know I can accomplish goodnessism.”

        Stopped listening and circular filed.

  23. I’ve read over the years that one reason for higher food prices at the grocery store is mandates from the government to put ethanol in gasoline, though I’m sure there’s a powerful lobby in DC to continue putting ethanol in gasoline, be it big farmers/ Big Agriculture or the “environmental” lobby, as they likely benefit from it financially or some other way. Supporters of such mandates also claimed that ethanol in gasoline was GOOD for the environment, but I’ve NEVER seen anything that would support such a claim. Instead, I’ve read that it was actually WORSE for the environment than if we were to not put the stuff in gasoline at all. And if the past few years have proven anything, it should be that if government tries to MANDATE something, be it wearing face diapers, taking experimental pharma products, or even EVs, it’s that whatever government is trying to MANDATE for the masses is probably NOT a good idea.

  24. “and pay for it in myriad other ways, such as reduced fuel economy and increased risk of corrosion-related problems”
    And the mining of the topsoil.
    “advance election of stolen goods”
    I think the quote is “advanced auction of stolen goods”, but I was wrong once before.
    Trump never has demonstrated any moral foundation or ethical principles, just like nearly all politicians, so this self contradiction is not at all surprising. Let me guess, he said this in Iowa?

  25. Famers love “saving the planet” when it means they get paid to do so. However, they whine and moan about John Deere grabbing them by the nuticles when it comes to maintenance and repairs. C’mon Mr. Green Jeans, you will own nothing and be happy!

    You pick up both ends of the socialist stick.

  26. For what it’s worth, at least with ethanol gas your car doesn’t burst into flames sitting in your garage. That said they both suck.

    As has been said in the past: “Government is not for you. It is for those who want to control you.” And that’s why we have mandates of all sorts now. Got Gault?

    Of course own a Rivian and have some fun. Small dent comes with a large bill.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/rivian-owner-shocked-41000-repair-bill-minor-damage

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