I don't think anyone was saying anything about us pickup drivers polluting the enviroment, I think this thread was aimed more at how to cut our dependance on foriegn oil and if Ethonal is the true alternative to what we currently have. Also I drive 35 miles one way and my wife drives 12, it just so happens that we both work in different towsn that are in opposite directions, there for we purchaced a house in the middle (by here standards, I drive much further, lol) BOth of our cars are now late models with the taurus and Lumina and both make relitivly good mileag, 25-30mpg hwy. So yes on average we burn around 25 gallons per week in our cars, though in another 25 for my truck to go hunting on the weekends and yeh I spend 75-100 bucks per week pretty easy, maybe I should though in my boat, tractor, lawn tractor, my 4 stroke weed eater, and the extra fuel to tow my camper and ect ect ect... I think you getr my point, waist is often times in the eye of the beholder. No I don't need to go hunting or fishing but I do need to move snow with my tractor, mow my yard, keep the weed down in my tree row ect ect. I think you see what I'm saying. It still comes back to is ethonal a viable good alternatice fuel that can be utilized now without much cost, the ansewer is yes.

 

WOW! This turned into one heck of a debate. I live in southern MN and i don't know a fuel station around here that has normal unleaded fuel without some ethanol.

 

Haven't really read through all the rhetoric, but I gotta say one thing about pollution, emissions, et al.

I wish I had bottled some air from the Long Island Expressway back in the late 70's, so I could compare it with today's air, and come up with real facts. However, from a purely subjective point of view, I gotta say this:

Mandated emissions for vehicles has done one thing: CLEANED UP THE AIR here in the Metro NY area. CAFE ratings has some small role in this but probably not a big one.

Also, I for one, being in one of the most heavily populated suburban areas (if you can actually call it suburban anymore), am GLAD they are regulating emissions for diesels now.

And, by the way, how did that "mandated" thing about ethanol creap into this discussion? I didn't see anyone advocating the gov't force us to run E85 ???

And, by the way, I have noticed NO difference in my V10 between E10 and "normal" gasoline.

And, there must be SOME ethanol production going on, or they couldn't put 10% ethanol in all the gas in all the Metro areas in the country, could they? Sounds like the economics of ethanol works somewhat, eh?

Oh well, I'm rambling, I'll shut up now.