Like the article said, you will definitely get less miles per gallon using 
alcohol based fuel.  The alcohol has less energy per unit volume.  So your 
friend's drop from 28 to 21 MPG isn't terribly surprising.  Also, like the 
article says, you don't burn alcohol fuel to save money.  It is more 
expensive to produce and less efficient per gallon.  The up side is that 
it is seemingly better for the environment, although I recently read a 
study from, I think it was Oregon state university, that said when you 
include what happens when you consider all the land needed to produce the 
grain, plus the fertilizer needed to grow it, plus the fuel needed to 
harvest it, plus the fuel needed to distill it, plus the fact that since 
you need more gallons of it to do the same job and thus have more trucks 
on the road to deliver it, it turns out to be a wash as far as 
environmental impact.  And, like we have seen, farmers go where the money 
is.  I just read that there is a hops shortage because the farmers have 
been shifting to growing crops for bio fuel.  A shortage of hops means 
more expensive beer, and that my friends, is a real problem.  *GRIN*

-- 
Blue skies.
Dan Rossi
Carnegie Mellon University.
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel:    (412) 268-9081

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