76-12-A6
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Gasohol
TranscriptI'm no engineer. Let's have that understood in view of what I'm going to talk about. Beyond changing a tire, my knowledge about making a go-less car go consists of calling the Automobile Club. But, ever since the Arab Oil embargo, I've wondered if we shouldn't be thinking about an energy source we could somehow plant and harvest as we do food and fiber. This isn't new or original with me. Racing cars run on alcohol. Ethyl alcohol can be made from corn or other grains. Then there is wood alcohol and methanol which can be made from a number of things; sewage, garbage, waste wood, et cetera. I'm not suggesting we cap all the oil wells. I'm just asking why more hasn't been done with a mix called gasohol, already tried and proven workable. Here we are, importing more oil than we were four years ago, and producing less here at home than we were then. They've upped the price and we can't do anything about it because if they slap another embargo on us, we'll all be walking. Two years ago in the Midwest, thousands of gallons of a ten percent alcohol/ninety percent gasoline mix were sold to customers who apparently were happy with the result. One state ran tests on its state vehicles with this 90/10 mix and found in almost three-quarters of a million miles that results, ranging from pollution to engine wear, were no different than with plain gasoline. Arithmetic on this "gasohol" indicates that general use could save us about 700,000 barrels of oil a day. That's between two and three billion dollars of savings on our import bill. Instead, those billions of dollars would be spent here at home growing and making the alcohol. That does not count the initial outlay for building the producing plants we don't have. Washington, which seems so bent on involving itself in everything, has been strangely silent on this possible answer to the energy shortage. Except, of course, for proposals that we drive less. And, to make that attractive, they talk of a hike in the gas tax -- which is pretty consistent with most government proposals. Well, gasohol would cost about five percent more than gasoline, but you get about five percent more miles per gallon, so that's a standoff. With some engine modification and improved technology, the mix could be more alcohol and less gasoline -- or so I'm told. And that sounds reasonable if racing cars can run on alcohol alone. As I said at the beginning, I'm no engineer. Maybe there are hang-ups and pitfalls we haven't heard about. But, it is fascinating to think of a day when much of our transportation fuel could possibly be a farm product, planted, harvested and processed with only the vagaries of weather to threaten the supply. There would be a whole market for agriculture and a new industry offering jobs to our people. Well, as I said, I'm no engineer -- but -- why not? This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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