Depends on your area, some places have E85 at almost 40% cheaper.&nbsp\\; the reduction in energy content is true, but if we had vehicles made to run solely on E85, (not practical at the moment), they would have higher compression ratios due to the higher octane of E85, which would lead to a greater overall efficiency.&nbsp\\; The only practical solution to the fuel price crisis is to start producing vehicles that run off of hydrogen fuel cells or hydrogen peroxide.&nbsp\\; This however, has not gained a huge following yet either.&nbsp\\; good news on the oil price front though, a new refinery is actually being built here in SD, and refinery capacity is supposedly a culprit in the fuel costs.&nbsp\\; Whether or not it will actually help things though, is doubtful in my opinion.

 

i agree, but with a twist.&nbsp\\; there is a problem with that also.&nbsp\\;

it takes energy to extract hydrogen, whether it be from the air, water, magic fairy dust, whatever.
you can't use the hydrogen you're pulling out of the air to fuel pulling out more hydrogen because it takes more energy to pull it out than you get back by burning it (the same reason i don't think those fancy run your car on water things won't work).&nbsp\\;

one thing that can be done is that you could have giant plants that burn coal or oil or whatever extract the hydrogen.&nbsp\\; centralizing energy generation is far far more efficient than having all these little engines we have in our cars and trucks.&nbsp\\; that's why a plug in electric car makes some sense because electricity is cheaper than gas since it is centrally generated.&nbsp\\; to me, the ideal solution is having nuclear plants extract the hydrogen.&nbsp\\; there are still issues with transporting and storing the stuff, especially on the vehicle, but nothing that can't be worked out.

sorry for thread stealing, just my $.02

 

Who said anything about corn? There are other ways to make E85. Sugar, switchgrass, and they are working on a way to make it in a lab now, from what I hear. Ethanol will eventually become mainstream. And until I can actually get my hands on some E85 and run it for a few tanks, I can't believe any of the MPG claims. I've heard anywhere from 10% to 50% loss. Somebody is lying.

 

The goat humping Canadians seem to be the number one supplier of crude.


Crude Oil Imports (Top 6 Countries)
(Thousand Barrels per Day) Country Mar-08 Feb-08 YTD 2008 Mar-07 YTD 2007 [hr] CANADA 2,542 2,464 2,532 2,305 2,407
SAUDI ARABIA 1,535 1,614 1,541 1,216 1,325
MEXICO 1,232 1,231 1,220 1,621 1,475
NIGERIA 1,154 982 1,102 1,290 1,156
VENEZUELA 858 945 980 1,036 1,033
IRAQ 773 780 697 523 464

 

Going on step further, help me out on this. I could be mistaken about this, if so, forgive me and set me straight. I believe one of the objectives, among other obvious things,in defending Kuwait a few years back, was to protect the US's interest in oil. So, we go there, lose lives, kick out the bad guys, put out thousands of well fires, liberate the country, and import less oil from them than from 9 other countries? Am I missing something?

 

CANADA 1,920
SAUDI ARABIA 1,614
MEXICO 1,231
NIGERIA 982
VENEZUELA 945
IRAQ 780
ANGOLA 341
ALGERIA 191
ECUADOR 169
KUWAIT 261
BRAZIL 169
COLOMBIA 220
RUSSIA 80
CONGO 97
CHAD89

 

ps. For those of you who caught that the numbers are different from whiteonrice, these

 

are crude imports to the US and the other is petroleum imports to the US,

 

where Kuwait is 13th.

 

Man alive, posting is a PITA. Not worth the trouble.