Will ethanol be the energy of the future?
Re: “Ethanol is politicians’ snake oil,” Feb. 15 David Harsanyi column.
I am amused by David Harsanyi’s bashing of ethanol fuels and Gov. Bill Ritter’s new ethanol developments with General Motors. It appears that Harsanyi is just now stumbling onto agricultural ethanol fuels.
Actually, the research that he did for his column is very credible, except for the old oil company rhetoric of ethanol fuels being economically unfeasible.
I helped start the agricultural ethanol fuels industry in the Midwest 30 years ago. If Harsanyi would travel to Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and North and South Dakota, he would see ethanol plants all over these states. We are way beyond the discussion of feasibility, emissions and any other old rhetoric.
This is a new growth agricultural industry that may or may not need subsidy assistance. Let’s not bash ethanol subsidies when the oil companies have been spoon-fed billions of dollars of federal subsidies for many decades. I would rather have fuel coming from our farmlands than oil from unreliable sources in the Mideast countries.
I hope the “average Americans” that Harsanyi insulted in his column will flock by the thousands to the E-85 ethanol fuel stations that are going in all over Colorado.
Randy Fricke, Western Slope Renewable Energy Co., Basalt
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David Harsanyi’s column misses the point by 180 degrees. Using E-85 fuel and GM cars designed to run on that fuel, Brazil is now independent of the Mideast oil sheiks, the financiers of Islamic terrorists. The money we spend on foreign oil comes back to us in the form of 9/11s, past, present and future. The U.S. should be energy-independent too. The conversion of our huge fleet of privately owned vehicles to 85 percent will take decades. Let’s start now.
It may be true that biofuel conversion does not directly reduce the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere; it is a zero sum game. All bio-crops used to make E-85 grow by converting carbon dioxide, water and nutrients to plant mass and then convert plant mass to E-85 and release the previously captured carbon dioxide. Using fossil fuels like coal, oil and gasoline add carbon dioxide, but do not remove it from the atmosphere we live in today.
It is true that GM will make money. So will big agra. It will also give the smaller independent farmers an opportunity too. I’d rather see farmers in our country earn money this way than enrich the Mideastern sand dune states.
Donald F. Halpern, Broomfield
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Thanks to David Harsanyi for this column. I appreciate someone looking at this. I think someone needs to look a little deeper.
First of all, ethanol does work. Corn ethanol? Not really. Sugar cane ethanol? Much better. Studies show sugar cane ethanol returns 7 gallons of fuel for every 1 used to produce it. Corn is a lowly 2-to-1, maybe 3-to-1. Oil is in the 15-to-1 range.
So why the fixation on corn ethanol when Brazil has become self-sufficient on sugar cane ethanol? The corn lobby is very strong in this country. There are lots of happy, wealthy farmers right now across the country, which may not be a bad thing after so many lean years. That’s why there is also a high tariff on ethanol from Brazil.
I think everyone knows we need to do something and start somewhere. But I don’t think I will be investing in a corn ethanol plant anytime soon. Unless these can be converted easily to another type of fuel, they will be dinosaurs in a few years.
Wayne Sorensen, Littleton
Chain laws for semi trailers in Colorado
Re: “Bill sticks stuck rigs; Stiff penalties for chainless truckers,” Feb. 16 news story.
As a veteran of driving a truck for 23 years, I felt compelled to write and tell you that putting on chains should take a driver no more than 10 to 15 minutes. The only people who take 45 minutes to put on chains, which your article says it takes, are inexperienced drivers.
We as professionals have an obligation to put safety first. As important as it is to get the freight to where it needs to go, truckers want to get there safe and get home to our families. The drivers who violate this chain law the most are drivers who haul double- trailers and drive single-axle trucks. We in the trucking industry strive for safety as we, too, have families who share the road with trucks.
I believe we should also have chain laws for four-wheelers.
Tim Sleyzak, Golden
The intentions behind Amendment 41
Last November, when Colorado voters spoke overwhelmingly in support of Amendment 41, they voted to ban gifts to public officials and public employees. Gifts. Not scholarships, disaster aid, or any of the other absurd interpretations some have suggested. It is time to read the law with some common sense, and implement Amendment 41 in a way that works for our state.
The goal of Amendment 41 was to create an environment that allows all Coloradans to participate in their government on a level playing field. The law seeks to stop the use of money or favors to curry undue influence with public officials or employees. Any application of Amendment 41 must be consistent with that purpose.
We must move forward and enact legislation that embraces the new ethics standards, eliminates doubts plaguing public employees, and implements Amendment 41 in the spirit voters intended.
Dian Callaghan, Denver
The writer is a Colorado Common Cause board member.
Seat-belt legislation
The nannies of spring have sprouted – again – trying to force Colorado residents to be safe. Eat your veggies, wash your hands, fasten seat belts, etc. But totally ignored is the safety of folks on buses.
Virtually none of the RTD buses have seat belts, eliminating the possibility of riders using a seat belt to be safe.
The same is true of our public school buses. Why do legislators have no concern for the safety of school children while they spend all their efforts on trying to force adults to belt up?
When will we learn to stop the constant restraints on our freedoms that many thousands of our military have paid the ultimate price in order to preserve? Legislature, get out of our private vehicles.
Darrel Lemon, Longmont
Sharing park roadways
Temperatures are going up, park usage is going up, and I’m sure tempers will be flaring soon also. After an unusually long spell of cold and snow so far this winter, everyone is eager to enjoy the roadway in Washington Park. It is imperative for everyone’s safety that all users follow the simple directional decals on the roadway. Pedestrians use the inside lane, bicyclists and fast roller bladers use the outside lane around the park. It is extremely unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists to share a lane, especially when the pedestrians have their back turned to traffic. Headphones don’t help the situation. This is not a speed-related issue, but a simple matter of seeing one another safely.
Gary A. Rossmiller, Denver
Taking issue with the use of the term “issue”
Nobody has “problems” anymore, only “issues.” The media have latched onto this word to the exclusion of all other synonyms of “problem.” The English language, lingua franca of the 21st century, is one of the richest languages in human history. Why, then, cannot our journalists find the mot juste to use other than the word “issue”? Here are some possibilities: problem, concern, hitch, hangup, malfunction, annoyance. There are many others.
Please do not make an issue of this, even in private conversation.
John White, Westminster
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