Bob, do you ever get tired of sleeping with the enemy?

“Well, we’re the ALA, and by dern, we’re a one trick pony. Clean air, that’s the ticket. I’d jump off a bridge if there was cleaner air 5 feet above the rocky bottom, dad gum.”

Seriuosly.

No more federal government sugar daddy for your corn liquor!

In North Dakota, they are testing a method of putting carbon back into the ground. That’s a switch!

Not to be outdone, the Iowa State Patrol is switching to E85.

I’m Mr. Lungs, remember?

I don’t know what the ultimate answers might be, but I sure hope it’s not more coal. The price we pay for coal is higher than just the scenery, as the great City of London learned the hard way more than 50 years ago.

I am starting to think that, at best, we’ll end up having to strip mine some very beautiful parts of North America and Canada while paying a lot more for gasoline than we are currently.

“Ethanol doesn’t burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper”

Wrong, wrong (at least here in MN)

E85 reduces carbon dioxide emissions by a modest fifteen percent at best, while fueling the destruction of tropical forests.

That’s closer to 30%, not 15%. Besides, isn’t 15% reduction in greenhouse gases a good thing, or am I missing something? Minnesota E85 hurting tropical forests? That’s a rather wild and unproven speculation, at best.

The artcle quotes mostly ethanol critics, including Minnesota’s own “Mr. Food vs. Fuel,” C. Ford Runge. Prof. Runge also loudly predidicted economic and mechanical disaster if Minnesota went ahead with its plan to add 10% ethanol to all its gasoline.

It did — 10 years ago — and we have had (historically) among the lowest gas prices in the nation ever since. We also are one of a small handful of states that have every county and municipality meeting EPA outdoor air quality standards, even though our population and # of vehicles on road has risen sharply.

Our focus is on helping to launch two alternative fuels — E85 and biodiesel — that produce less air pollutants when used. These are alternatives that are available (and they work) right now, not sometime ‘in the future.’ Future solutions are great — but we believe Minnesota drivers need to have some clean air choices now, not later.

We are not trying to replace all gasoline, solve all environmental and energy issues or declare biofuels as “the answer.” We need all the answers — fuel conservation, better fuel economy, mass transit, yada yada yada. Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but it’s still all true.