Date:         Tue, 22 May 2007 18:50:12 -0400
Reply-To:     Sam Conant <samcvt@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Sam Conant <samcvt@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Re: politics of e85 RE: E85 in vanagons
Comments: To: Greg Potts <greg@pottsfamily.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Tks for the response, Greg and, once again recognizing that this topic may not be interesting to our Westy purist brethren and sisters, I feel obligated to respond here.

Yes.  Canadian grain production is an important and valued asset in the world markets' the bottom line,  However, acknowledged within the agri-business world, is that shifting the distribution of just corn alone from the international food distribution stream into the industrial petroleum refining stream will effect the availability of food products world wide to all consumers including those of us who reside in North America.  More, given the focus of what I consider idiotic U.S. attention to its southern border these days, I believe it is important to point out that "North America" is a geo-economic and geo-political term which applies to all nations north of the Panama Canal.  

So, the idea of reducing food supplies by using corn and other food sources to our region by directed the flow of those resources into fuel production and distribution processes is really a "no brainer" process in my opinion.

SamC
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Greg Potts 
  To: Sam Conant 
  Cc: Vanagon List 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 2:16 PM
  Subject: Re: politics of e85 RE: E85 in vanagons


  Hi Sam,


  That might be true... But here in Canada we grow a LOT of corn for animal feed and vegetable oil. One of the studies I read mentioned that the byproducts of corn-produced ethanol actually make more productive animal feed than the original corn.


  Also note that putting just 15% ethanol into gasoline means a potential 15% gain in oil refinery capacity. And refinery capacity is one of the reasons I keep hearing for the high cost of fuel here in the great white north. How true that is I am not qualified to say.


  There is a LOT of disinformation out there about ethanol as a vehicle fuel, on both sides of the fence.




  Happy Trails,


  Greg Potts
  1973/74/77/79 Westfakia "Bob The Tomato
  www.pottsfamily.ca
  www.busesofthecorn.com






  On 22-May-07, at 1:20 PM, Sam Conant wrote:


    More to the point though is the documentation that even if the U.S. converts

    its entire annual corn yield via the distillation and refining process, at

    tremendous infrastructure development and expense, the ethanol produce will

    provide only a meager percentage of the total U.S. demand for fuel - at

    today's rate!