Boat owners must read....

[WClamp]

This sounds muchly like unto the dear Ms. Pelosi and "sign it now, read it later". My oh my, her and her good buddy Mr. Read or is it Reed, I pay so little attention to what they have to say I find it impossible to worry of the correct spelling of their names.

[Further North]

Originally Posted by boat nut

The only thing ethanol is good for is Farming.

Yep.

It hammers habitat, the runoff from the added farmland adds algae to our lakes rivers and streams, and it's more expensive to run...especially if you include ALL the costs.

[GeorgeJr]

Originally Posted by Further North

Yep.

It hammers habitat, the runoff from the added farmland adds algae to our lakes rivers and streams, and it's more expensive to run...especially if you include ALL the costs.

I question the stickiness of a old thread that appears to not have very much factual information IMO. I know posting to it isn't ideal but it is sticky so must have value for others to keep reading.

To the quoted info:
Are we considering the lifecycle cost and pollution from gas as well? Algae is food for animals btw, I don't like run off even more than most but algea has been occuring and has its usefulness (including as a method to generate Ethanol) I'll be the first in line to drink 100% ethanol if you'll drink Gasoline. ;-) You have around 15 hazardous chemicals in Gasoline to contend with I just need to walk off a hangover.

MTBE was great for the groundwater wasn't it (Nope) Ethanol was used to avoid further contamination of our groundwater supply?

For every bushel of corn you get about 3 Gal of ethanol, 16.5 lbs of feed stock for animals, and about 0.6 lbs of corn oil and 16 lbs of CO2 (enough for about 4,300 soda cans) all of which is sold/provided to users of these byproducts. Feed stock becomes food from beef and other animals and corn oil used for Biodiesel. Current price of the corn is about $3.50 and wholesale cost of Ethanol is around $1.64/gal vs $2.22/gal for wholesale gas base on current prices (http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/prices.cfm).

I like the idea of higher fuel prices... Remember all the users trying to sell vehicles they really didn't need but were gas guzzlers.. My Minivan hauls my tandem axle boat just fine and no I don't need a truck that is what I need at the farm to haul heavy loads that I won't dare pull with the van. I get 16 mpg pulling the boat. Less if I use the truck and not as conformable for the family.

Turkey, Deer, and other wildlife seem love our farm as the populations are hard to keep in check. CRP ground we have increased as buffer strips to help even further reduce run-off. I like the cleaner air that comes from Ethanol's use as well as the American Lung Association support of E85. Is Ethanol the best choice this is debatable but doing nothing has its cost. Why are we fighting in many of the recent wars? We want stable oil markets but we really need is energy independence or less reliance on foreign sources.

What is the true cost of the dinosaurs/organisms that decomposed and created oil reserves and time needed to create? I'm not sure but I can tell you production costs and selling prices of corn and how long it takes to produce.

Jobs: Ethanol plants add good paying jobs, tax base, local use of products produced in the states (midwest including MN, IA, IL, WI...) Instead of shipping products to foreign markets we can divert more to local use reducing transportation costs. As farm income increases investments go into Deere, Case, Cat and other generally USA based companies which hire more people. As farmers expand and older generations remove from the farm more acres are produced by less farmers. These farmers are more efficient and can and do use practices such as no till farming which is why you see all that corn stubble till spring when soybeans (rotating crops) emerge from between the rows of corn reducing any erosion.

Do you fertilize your lawn? Do home owners along the lake? When you do this are you knifing it in at exact rates or broadcasting it out a bit more then you need to make sure that lawn is green for the summer months. Grass clippings are a great source of N. We all have work to do to reduce but putting this all into the Ethanol debate might be misleading. If you could pick from 100% ethanol tanker spill or a gas tanker spill which one would you rather have? I'd pick Ethanol as it is biodegradable in water, groundwater and soil... Check out Gasoline on concerns of a large spill oh ya we have seen that. And how is the Gulf of Mexico doing again? If I spill corn I clean up what I can and the birds, Deer, Turkey... clean up the rest. No PIG, no hazmat suit, no skimmers...

Keep your tank full and you won't need to worry about phase separation, any water will be burned thru w/o any notice of problems. Stabilize if storing for awhile and your 1980's and newer outboard was updated to seals that can handle higher concentrations they you would ever run in it and my old 1977 70 hp Evinrude seemed to enjoy E10 and E20. Older units update fuel lines if rubber and don't run more then E10 and enjoy. I ran my old outboard empty each year (pre and post E10 days) and it is still running strong with a new owner with 0 carb work done in all its years. New 150 is using E10 top tier fuel and expect lots of years of memories just the same.

Mercury did a good web-n-r regarding Ethanol and highlighted benefits it offers over non ethanol blends. Leaving fuel sit in a carb for long term was never good for any age of fuel w/o stabilization. Run it dry with stabilizer at the end of the year/season and you will enjoy years of maintenance free outboard use IMO.

At the end of the day we are all in this planet together lets all make good choices trying to do positive things for the environment so future generations can enjoy what we do as well. Change might take learning curves but not all change is as bad as the guy down the street make it sound. Oh and even farmers often don't take to change very well, but when the neighbor repeatably out produces year after year you bet your bottom kernel they take note and try to mimic as well. Be as green as you can and keep the lines tight. And remove this as a sticky message IMO.

[cgolf]

As long as I can buy gas without ethanol in it, I will always use that in my boat. The reason is when I ran 10 percent ethanol gas one year in my boat on vacation I had to choke it every time I started it, even if I just shut it off for a minute or two to pick up or drop people off at a swimming hole, I was ready to throw the motor in the lake.

When I got my next tank of gas, the station only had straight gas so I put that in the boat. The rest of the trip I only needed to choke it the first time I started it it up in the morning. Ever since then ethanol has never hit my gas tank on the boat and never will. If ethanol gas is all that is available, then I guess I will need someone to tune the motor to run with it, since it doesn't now.

Know this is an old thread, but just wanted to add my experience.