AMA against e15 ( 15% ethanol )

[leprecaun jon]

so first off im not sure where to put this, sorry mods :/

secondly i received my first issue of american motorcyclist today ( still haven't gotten my membership card yet though) and in said issue i found an article about the AMA combating the congressional bill meant to increase the dosage of ethanol going in to our vehicles.... check it out and take some action, this bill could have some threatening "promises" to motorcycling as we know it, the other issues as well.... as an active AMA member and an fz6r forum member i ask all of you here to do your part in preserving our passion... motorcycles.

Issues & Legislation

( wont let me directly link you to the ethanol page you will have to scroll down and find it)

 

[Marthy]

Might not even happen. I was reading somewhere this week that the projected production volume of Ethanol will not be met. Those standard were propose many years ago... Let me try to find this article... be back soon.

 

[Marthy]

Might not even happen. I was reading somewhere this week that the projected production volume of Ethanol will not be met. Those standard were propose many years ago... Let me try to find this article... be back soon.

Article from AutoRacing1.com

Another Ethanol debacle As IndyCar and NASCAR do a money grab and pander to the Ethanol fuel industry, the American taxpayer continues to get raked over the coals by believing in the Ethanol folly.
'We'll fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips and stalks or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years." —George W. Bush, 2006 State of the Union address

Years before the Obama Administration dumped $70 billion into solar and wind energy and battery operated cars, and long before anyone heard of Solyndra, President Bush launched his own version of a green energy revolution. The future he saw was biofuels. In addition to showering billions of dollars on corn ethanol, Mr. Bush assured the nation that by 2012 cars and trucks could be powered by cellulosic fuels from switch grass and other plant life.

To launch this wonder-fuel industry, the feds under Mr. Bush and President Obama have pumped at least $1.5 billion of grants and loan subsidies to fledgling producers. Mr. Bush signed an energy bill in 2007 that established a tax credit of $1.01 per gallon produced.

Most important, the Nancy Pelosi Congress passed and Mr. Bush signed a law imposing mandates on oil companies to blend cellulosic fuel into conventional gasoline. This guaranteed producers a market. In 2010 the mandate was 100 million barrels, rising to 250 million in 2011 and 500 million in 2012. By the end of this decade the requirements leap to 10.5 billion gallons a year.

When these mandates were established, no companies produced commercially viable cellulosic fuel. But the dream was: If you mandate and subsidize it, someone will build it.

Guess what? Nobody has. Despite the taxpayer enticements, this year cellulosic fuel production won't be 250 million or even 25 million gallons. Last year the Environmental Protection Agency, which has the authority to revise the mandates, quietly reduced the 2011 requirement by 243.4 million gallons to a mere 6.6 million. Some critics suggest that even much of that 6.6 million isn't true cellulosic fuel.

The EPA has already announced that the 2012 mandate of 500 million gallons is unattainable, so it is again expected to lower the mandate to fewer than 12 million gallons for next year.

One reason the mandates can't be met is the half-dozen or so companies that received the first round of subsidies to produce cellulosic fuel never got off the ground. Some 70 million gallons, or 70% of the cellulosic supply to meet the 2010 mandate, was supposed to come from Alabama-based Cello Energy. Incredibly, those projections were made before Cello had built its plant to produce the fuel and before the technology was proven to work.

In 2009 a jury in a civil fraud case ruled that Cello had lied about how much cellulosic fuel it could produce. Some of the fuel that Cello showed to investors was derived from petroleum, not plants. The firm produced little biofuel and in October 2010 it declared bankruptcy.

It gets worse. Because there was no cellulosic fuel available, oil companies have had to purchase "waiver credits"—for failing to comply with a mandate to buy a product that doesn't exist. In 2010 and this year, the EPA has forced oil companies to pay about $10 million for these credits. Since these costs are eventually passed on to consumers, the biofuels mandate is an invisible tax paid at the gas pump.

And for what? An October 2011 report on biofuels by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that the mandates "may be an ineffective way to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions." Because production is so low, advanced cellulosic fuels also do very little to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. The report notes that "currently, no commercially viable biorefineries exist for converting cellulosic biomass to fuel."

Why? Because of what the National Academy report calls "the high cost of producing cellulosic biofuels compared with petroleum-based fuels, and uncertainties in future biofuel markets." The report does say that technological breakthroughs could make cellulosic fuels cost-competitive in the future, but that same leap of faith has driven subsidies to alternative energy for 40 years.

Still, the subsidies roll on. In August 2011 the Obama Administration funded a $510 million program in partnership with the Navy to produce advanced biofuels for the military. In September the feds loaned $134 million to Abengoa Bioenergy to build a cellulosic plant in Kansas. The optimistic forecast is that this plant will produce about 23 million barrels a year—a fraction of what Washington promised in 2006. In September the Department of Energy provided POET, which advertises itself as the "world's largest ethanol producer," a $105 million loan guarantee for cellulosic.

To recap: Congress subsidized a product that didn't exist, mandated its purchase though it still didn't exist, is punishing oil companies for not buying the product that doesn't exist, and is now doubling down on the subsidies in the hope that someday it might exist. We'd call this the march of folly, but that's unfair to fools. Wall Street Journal

 

[Spunky99]

We are already having problems with motorcycles with plastic fuel tanks. My Triumph's tank will stretch and swell with ethanol and replacing it is expensive. Coating the inside is an option but the failure rate of that protective surface is very high.

 

[leprecaun jon]

thanks marthy, none the less every voice counts for something, there are a few issues under the link that i have also sent letters to local legislation about...some of it having to do with land and what not.... im a trail rider as well a street rider... spunky do you put sta-bil or fuel stabilizer in your tank? it may help reduce the effects on your tank, i know it helps with my fuel economy and is supposed to prevent ethanol wear and tear.

 

[Marthy]

We are already having problems with motorcycles with plastic fuel tanks. My Triumph's tank will stretch and swell with ethanol and replacing it is expensive. Coating the inside is an option but the failure rate of that protective surface is very high.

We are going to get to a point where changing fuel line will be part of a tune up! Imagine, most of carbs have plastic float. And you said your fuel tank is made out of plastic...

 

[Deanohh]

Here are a couple of relavent comments by guys from another forum:

The whole corn fuel concept is bunk, at least at this time. Way more energy to plow, grow, harvest, transport, and to produce a gallon of fuel than the energy provided by that gallon of fuel. So to do it is really a net loss and waste of energy and resources. Plus it competes with using the grain for animal feed and drives the cost up for a lot of farm products bacause of that.

I agree; while I can see using some waste biomass for the production of ethanol, purposely using good food stock to fuel our vehicles while a billion people on this planet go to bed hungry every night is morally repulsive. It inflates the price world wide for staple food that the poor cannot afford.

 

[JSP]

We are going to get to a point where changing fuel line will be part of a tune up! Imagine, most of carbs have plastic float. And you said your fuel tank is made out of plastic...

We have lots of issues with our 2 stroke outboards with this ethanol crap too... :rant: Do not like the stuff.

 

[leprecaun jon]

lol all of you have just proven the point to contact legislation about the issue... even if its dead, you can never beat a dead horse enough XP.... make our voices clear.... we dont want the ethanol ... so dont even consider it.

 

[MiltonDorkenhoff]

We have lots of issues with our 2 stroke outboards with this ethanol crap too... :rant: Do not like the stuff.

A 2 stroke outboard? I thought for sure you'd have a V-8 on your boat. Something with a supercharger probably..

 

[JSP]

A 2 stroke outboard? I thought for sure you'd have a V-8 on your boat. Something with a supercharger probably..

haha, and its only a 5 hp at that! Little bugger screams, but moves like this guy :zombie::surrender:. Gets me to the fish though . One day I'll upgrade haha.

 

[leprecaun jon]

haha, and its only a 5 hp at that! Little bugger screams, but moves like this guy :zombie::surrender:. Gets me to the fish though . One day I'll upgrade haha.

XD jay you make my day man.... i pictured that little motor screamin its ass off and going absolutely nowhere.... your definitely no fish ninja.... maybe one day though!

 

[BrueThru]

We have lots of issues with our 2 stroke outboards with this ethanol crap too... :rant: Do not like the stuff.

Yeh, yeh, yeh...you and your two strokes.

 

[JSP]

Yeh, yeh, yeh...you and your two strokes.

Hey! Sometimes that's all it takes buddy!

 

[txjames]

I'm against e10 too! Hate that engine killing stuff!

 

[leprecaun jon]

I'm against e10 too! Hate that engine killing stuff!

i hear ya..... that shits killing everything...makes owning a bike with a carb a pain in the ass

 

[2011FZ6R]

You still haven't gotten your card and whatnot? I got mine maybe a week after I bought my membership, which I believe was around when you got yours. I've had mine since november. But I too got my first issue of the magazine yesterday.

 

[leprecaun jon]

You still haven't gotten your card and whatnot? I got mine maybe a week after I bought my membership, which I believe was around when you got yours. I've had mine since november. But I too got my first issue of the magazine yesterday.

nope, i even emailed them, the lady said that she noticed i had called about it before and they had submitted for yet another card, she asked if the mailing address was correct and i confirmed that it was, she then said that she submitted for another card for me and that i should give it 2-3 weeks to show up, if it yet again does not show up ill have to contact them yet again, matter o fact i think today marks exactly a month from when i signed up.