Benefits of Ethanol Touted at LATI Event
by Dan Crisler (The Public Opinion) Watertown automotive and fuel retailers and technicians got a special visit from one of the most respected automotive reviewers in the country in Marc Rauch.
Rauch, an executive with internet automotive research website and television channel The Auto Channel, spoke Thursday night at the Lake Area Technical Institute Student Center at the request of Glacial Lakes Energy. For more than an hour, Rauch, a strong ethanol advocate, explained the evolution of automotive gas throughout the 20th century, eventually leading to the increasingly prominent role ethanol is playing in the 21st century.
Coinciding with GLE’s ongoing E30 Challenge promotional campaign, Rauch also advocated E30, a 30 percent ethanol gasoline blend, as a better automotive fuel going forward.
“I very much believe in E30,” Rauch said.
While citing common arguments that E30 and its higher octane rating makes for a better burning and environmentally cleaner product on nearly all drivable vehicles, Rauch primarily emphasized the role E30 could play, if adopted widely, in United States foreign policy.
Namely, Rauch claimed, nationwide adoption of E30 would eliminate the need to import foreign oil, which is often located in politically unstable countries.
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Rauch claimed the United States spends about $1 billion per day on importing foreign oil.
“If we didn’t have to buy foreign oil anymore, we could save $365 billion (per year),” he said. “That $365 billion could be spent mostly on American farmers to produce ethanols. That money would then be used to pay salaries and buy things, hopefully American products,” Rauch said.
On the mechanical side, Rauch told the Public Opinion that any mileage drop-off, if it occurs, would be more than offset by the financial savings at the pump.
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As for what he would like to see in cars, Rauch had two specific ideas.
“Every internal combustion motor vehicle on the road should be running very high levels of ethanol,” he said. “Every new internal combustion vehicle should be optimized to run on ethanol and to run on E80 and above. They need to put in a little something for cold weather starting. But that doesn’t mean they have to put in a petroleum gasoline product. Cars would run smoother, faster and more powerful. Fuel would be cheaper and it would be a whole lot healthier.” READ MORE
