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Why Is Getting US Off Gasoline So Important to The Auto Channel?




By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
The Auto Channel

Supplemental to "Gasoline "Women of the night" File Frivolous Lawsuit in Attempt to Derail American Energy Independence"


Engine fuel and energy technology doesn't just power automobiles, it powers our entire economy. No, I take that back, it powers the world’s economy.

The automobile industry is the world's largest and most important industry. If we, the people in all democratic countries, can find a new and better way to fuel vehicles; something that saves money, and keeps the money in the domestic “purses” of each country, then it gives everyone in that country a boost. If we can find alternatives that don’t damage the environment then we’re all healthier and happier. And if we can find alternatives that can’t be used as strategic weapons by one country against another then we have a freer global society. And if we can do all of this then people buy more cars and trucks, which increases job opportunities, corporate revenues, taxes, and enjoyment of life.

The bottom line is that we support all alternative fuels; particularly those that we can produce here in America from American raw materials. We love CNG, we love propane, and we love algae-based bio-fuels. But we especially love ethanol because it can be produced from so many different types of abundant raw materials right now, today, and the use of ethanol doesn’t have to require any engine conversion. Depending upon your vehicle you can put a rather high percentage of ethanol in your fuel tank right now. And the only effect you will experience is that you will save money – up to $1.00 or more on every gallon of ethanol you use. You don’t even need government approval or EPA sanctioning to do it. You just drive up to an ethanol pump and fill ‘er up (please see Save 20%* on Gasoline Immediately ...Guaranteed! for more information). You can even make your own ethanol in your backyard. You can't do that with CNG, propane or algae biofuels.

We also love the idea of electric vehicles, but we're very skeptical of electric's potential to help us out of our present economic depression. Electric cars may just not be a significant factor until the end of this century, the 21st century. That means that not only will you be dead and buried by the time of an electric vehicle revolution, but your children (if they are above the age of puberty) may not see it either. We feel that electric gets the support they do from the gasoline companies because the gasoline companies know that electric isn’t a real threat. They use electric as a carrot before the mule: “Just keep on using gasoline; we’ll get to that there electric soon enough.” But soon never comes.

As a matter of interest, we’ve been approached by Brazilian ethanol entities to help promote the sale of Brazilian ethanol in America, but we don’t do it. We’re happy that the Brazilians have developed such a strong ethanol industry; and we’re certainly thankful for what the Brazilians have done to show the contemporary world that ethanol is still as great an engine fuel as it was considered nearly 100 years ago; when Henry Ford and the top engineers at General Motors thought that ethanol was the best engine fuel. But we don’t want to replace our dependence on Middle East or Venezuela or Russian petroleum oil with Brazilian ethanol. We have to stand on our own and every other country should do the same.

In any event, what this all gets down to is building new factories, putting people to work, creating new supportive businesses and putting people to work in them; and keeping the money here to be used to buy more domestic products that are built by our own citizens. The petroleum oil and gasoline industry just sucks us dry. It's great for the Arab sheiks and dictators so that they can live in fantasy lifestyles and pay terrorists to wreak havoc around the world, but it does nothing for us. This is why the issue of alternative fuel is so important to The Auto Channel.

This story was originally published November 10, 2010

SEE ALSO: Electric Vehicles: A Solution or Diversion?