Ethanol-making machine for $10K.

[Frankie's Market]

Imagine a machine that you can use at home to create ethanol that you can use on a flex-fuel vehicle.

http://www.efuel100.com/

But before everyone gets too excited, do consider that the system is very big (bigger than a gas station pump) and costly (about $10,000). Even with available tax credits, it could take years for the system to pay for itself with savings over gasoline costs. Keep in mind that the raw materials that you will need (sugar and yeast) aren't free.

[Mike_Lowery]

Re: Ethanol-making machine for $10K.

boooo ethanol! people are starving in the world, and could use the corn, rice, sugar, etc.

[TuNnL]

Re: Ethanol-making machine for $10K.

I’m still waiting to hear what happened to Governor Lingle’s promise to have a fledgling local ethanol industry before Hawai‘i introduced the stuff to the gas pumps... which became a promise to have a fledgling ethanol industry soon, since we’re now importing all of it for Hawai‘i’s pumps...

[joshuatree]

Re: Ethanol-making machine for $10K.

boooo ethanol! people are starving in the world, and could use the corn, rice, sugar, etc.

I'm for ethanol once they refined the process of making it from switchgrass, not from food stock.

[Frankie's Market]

Re: Ethanol-making machine for $10K.

boooo ethanol! people are starving in the world, and could use the corn, rice, sugar, etc.

Who's kidding who here?

Decades before this ethanol/alternative fuel issue came to the fore, hundreds of millions of people in this world suffered from hunger and malnutrition annually. Back when all those singers were crooning, "We are the world, we are the children," you didn't have all these programs and govt. incentives to devote corn to ethanol production. So why were all those people in third world countries starving back then? I'll tell ya. It's mostly due to political and economic reasons. You had these distrustful govts. (like the current situation in Myanmar) that hindered the distribution emergency supplies and literally let food and grain rot on their docks. You had other govts. burning/dumping food surpluses because of export restrictions and/or to maintain food prices on the open market. Talk about a total waste!

And I tell ya somethin' else. You can totally stop ethanol production tomorrow if you want. But you're only fooling yourself if you think that will end or even significantly reduce the world's hunger problem. Why? Because those political factors and economic motivations that I talked about are still there, staring us in the face.

Below is the link to an article explaining what are the main culprits in the rise of food prices, and how blaming ethanol production is really a convenient scapegoat for politicians to target.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24393951/

This is how it works. Food prices go up. Voters complain to their congressman and senator. Pandering congressmen and senators realize 2008 is an election year, so they "show" their constituents they are doing something about the issue by repealing incentives for ethanol production. Voters duped into believing the anti-ethanol propaganda cheer for their pandering congressman/senator and vote him back in.

And all the while, Bush's friends in the oil industry boardrooms are sitting back and laughing.