What Happened to Ethanol?

Gas at my local gas station was listed at $2.72 per gallon today. I make note of this because we are driving down to Cincy to visit my parents today. That is a pretty painful number to be looking at when embarking on a 5 hour trip.

As usual, when heading into farm country, think of the farmers. I have mentioned before that growing up among farmers has had influence on how I view the gardening world at large, including this gigantic garden we call the environment.

Today, as I am going past field after field of corn still rubbing my wallet after the beating it just took at the pump, I can’t help but wonder… What happened to ethanol?

Once, ethanol was touted as a way to reduce our dependency on foreign fuel. Cleaner burning, better for us, all round great Apple Pie kind of fuel. Now that we are paying the prices for foreign fuel dependency, all I hear about are hybrid cars.

Hybrid cars are great (or are they), but it’s going to take a few years or decades or even never before they become the norm on the road. What happened to ethanol as a short term bridge solution?

I know, I know. Ethanol is not the environmentally friendly wonder fuel that it was originally touted to be but it isn’t any worse than gasoline. As purely a reducer to foreign oil dependency we should be chasing after it, right? Even from the standpoint of the environment, it is a renewable, sustainable, non-invasive fuel source, which gasoline is not.

Hybrids still need gas, so why are we not working towards a FlexFule(ethanol)/electric hybrid rather than a gasoline/electric hybrid?

I don’t have the answers, just the question. And an empty wallet after leaving the gas pump.