Prius less "green" than Hummer!!!!!!!!

[scottcarlye]

If you think the prius is a farce, you should check out the truth about bio-diesel and ethanol...

They have a negative net energy balance when you take into account refining, production, fertilizer and other energy inputs. The positive energy balances I have seen reported places only 'non-domestic' petroluem on the negative side of the energy balance sheet. By disregarding natural gas and domestic sourced coal burned for electricity and heat production during refining the balance is a net positive. Not quit a fair assessment. But if you want to demonstrate that petroleum imports can be reduced, I guess it is resonable... just not factual. Plus, to make a dent in oil imports, we would have to plant corn or soy on just about every square inch of the country.

[evil0ne]

The z gets me pretty close to that too, hell it gets 31mph on the highway just runs premium gas

I'd demand a refund if my 500hp car could only muster 31mph on the highway .

[Domsz06]

evilone,

your funny! Yeah that 31mph just sucks for 505hp doesn't it? I LOVE IT! it's so great just cruizing along at 1400rpm dump it into 2nd or 3rd and the BEAST roars to life

[Domsz06]

biodiesel and ethanol are jokes.

Ethanol was just the gov'ts short term fix to getting rid of MTBE.

[spharis]

We never learn from our mistakes....all of this is a repeat of the mid 80's. Ethanol this, and alternative fuels that.....Petroleum is CHEAP....real cheap. Nothing else can compare unless the gov't were to put in massive amounts of money into a pipeline to support it. Seeing as the dollar is backed by petroleum (no onger gold), I don't see that happening until we aren't the global market lead anymore. The ONLY gov't to anne up and do it so far is Brazil, and it is working great for them with sugarcane, that is then burned for fuel, then the left over coke is used for fertilizing. Unfortunately, sugar cane doesn't grow well outside the tropical climates, like here. Ethanol in Brazil is about 1/3 the cost of gasoline, and is carbon neutral. They still have gas for large vehicles, but the small commuters run on corn liquor.

[chpthril]

We never learn from our mistakes....all of this is a repeat of the mid 80's. Ethanol this, and alternative fuels that.....Petroleum is CHEAP....real cheap. Nothing else can compare unless the gov't were to put in massive amounts of money into a pipeline to support it. Seeing as the dollar is backed by petroleum (no onger gold), I don't see that happening until we aren't the global market lead anymore. The ONLY gov't to anne up and do it so far is Brazil, and it is working great for them with sugarcane, that is then burned for fuel, then the left over coke is used for fertilizing. Unfortunately, sugar cane doesn't grow well outside the tropical climates, like here. Ethanol in Brazil is about 1/3 the cost of gasoline, and is carbon neutral. They still have gas for large vehicles, but the small commuters run on corn liquor.

Round here, we run on corn liquor, not the cars but you are right about our distibution sys for petroleum does help keep it cheap.

[balair]

I live in Iowa and I never put ethanol in my car. probably because I have a turbo charged Jetta GLI that is more fun when it has premium in it. Ethanol is a joke and so is most of the green movement. All those people do is move the pollution away from them so they think they are doing good. Plus, many of them are against Nuclear Power because they are uninformed and actually think that radaition is released into the atmosphere.

[Domsz06]

balair,

pretty sure your putting some ethanol in your car. It's not all ethanol, but you are putting a certain percent in it.