3 ms·
How did these laws pass (besides lobbying from people growing corn)? I wasn't following too closely at the time.
by cheepin 13y ago
How did these laws pass (besides lobbying from people growing corn)? I wasn't following too closely at the time.
- hayksaakian 13y agoThat's the only reason they passed. The only other excuse is that once we have cars that consumer corn ethanol, its easier to move to other types of ethanol.
- randomdata 13y agoLeading up to that time we had corn coming out of our ears and elevators were quite literally leaving it out to rot. The energy was already spent, ethanol was just a plan to recapture it. It wasn't completely misguided.
- ams6110 13y agoThere was a good bit of uncritical, emotion driven thinking as well. Corn == bio == green != oil thus must be good.
- hga 13y agoOne detail is that the EPA's excessively stringent smog metrics require the addition of oxygenates (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygenate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygenate) during the summer (when the US gasoline market Balkanates into close to 20? separate regions, each with its own blend). Refiners used to use methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) but that was declared icky in comparison to ethanol.