As the years passed by, prices of all the things we need (commodities like eggs, corn, and of course gas and oil) have already been going up and one of these that has gone up the most is gas. A few years ago, prior to Hurricane Katrina, gas was just around $1.40 to $1.60 per gallon at the pump. A far cry from what it is now at over $4 per gallon – ouch. Now, people are really feeling the crunch. Together with the housing market slump, six straight months of job losses and ever rising gas prices, the economy is in bad shape. People are hurting and cutting back on everything even including travel. Who wants to drive to far away places at $4 per gallon or more? It’s time to start looking into alternatives. The current leading and most feasible alternatives are:
E85 and Bioethanol
E85 and bioethanol are leading ideas in alternative fuel technologies that could possibly both reduce gas prices per gallon and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. These are a mixture of alcohol fuel and are created from corn or similar crops through distillation. It relies on corn crops (or in the future switch grass which is less economically taxing) and generally, it is better for the economy and the environment as it burns cleaner. The problem, as America has now found out, is that when you divert over 30% of a high demand commodity like corn (corn products are used in everything from pharmaceuticals to most food products) then you actually magnify the problem of high oil and gas prices by also causing huge increases in commodities, shipping costs and inflation across the board as companies pass on these rising costs to consumers. Corn is not the answer, but research into the use of switch grass and other similar plants at prestigious Ivy League schools like Cornell University may change this by lowering the demand on commodities like corn and producing a more effective return per acres farmed. Right now the only ones benefiting from E85 and Bioethanol are the Midwest farmers due to rising prices.
Electricity and car batteries
If you truly want clean – zero emissions vehicles this is it. When a car runs solely off its batteries there is zero emissions of toxic gases or greenhouse gases like CO2 and CO amongst others. Now, the only problems are cost or price of the vehicles in question and availability of recharge stations. You can purchase low priced hookups for your home, so initially charging your car is not a problem, but what about traveling longer distances where you will need recharging? In most states this just isn’t available or an option as of yet. In California over 80% of the available recharge centers are not open to the public – they are for state and government vehicles only. Due to low availability and demand, most of these vehicles are very expensive to purchase when compared to their fossil fueled counterparts.
Restoring and cleaning your headlights is proven to greatly increase night time driving safety!
Another problem will eventually be proper disposal of the fuel or battery cells and their lithium or similarly toxic components. Currently these batteries are slated to have a useful life of 10 years. In the future we will see more and more of these solely electric vehicles as the price of gas continues to stay at or above $4 per gallon. This is good for our economy as the fuels initially used to create most of our electricity are from the U.S. and not the middle east (coal). We will see more of this as the popular hybrids like the Toyota Prius age and start to show up in the junk yards and such in larger quantities.
CNG
CNG stands for compressed natural gas. Compressed natural gas is the same natural gas we use in our homes for everything from cooking to heating water and running our HVAC systems. It is derived from the U.S. in the southern regions and costs far less than oil from overseas. Honda has a great little car that runs on CNG, the Honda Civic GX and there are numerous other manufacturers that currently offer trucks and vans with CNG as the main fuel. CNG burns much cleaner than gas or even propane and costs on average 60 cents to 89 cents for the equivalent of a gallons worth of fuel. Reportedly natural gas will cause a 5% reduction in performance, but for savings of $3 per gallon it is definitely worth it. Now, if only automotive manufacturers would offer more of a selection in CNG cars other than base vehicles with roll up windows and no radio or CD player – most CNG equipped vehicles see very limited production and are only barely equipped. CNG is definitely a better way for the future and with higher gas prices will become more feasible and more of a reality.
As we notice nowadays, gasoline only has a few alternatives – bioethanol, electrical and CNG. Researchers are only starting in some parts of the world to put serious efforts into finding better alternatives and on trying to lower our overall carbon footprint. The required changes to be more fuel efficient, environmentally friendly and less reliant on foreign oil will not happen overnight. Still we need to commit more resources and funding to these changes as they will in the long run better stabilize the financial shape and economy of America and have a long term better effect on global warming and the environment. We must strive to become less reliant on foreign oil and the unreliable political constituents of the middle east and OPEC. By reducing the funding that goes to the middle east we will inherently also reduce the funds that eventually flow into terrorism, dangerous political regimes (Iran and Hamas) and other similar threats. As more people become interested in exploring the use of alternative fuels the costs associated with their use will diminish eventually to the point where everyone can benefit.
