Re: E-85

Various - if you're waiting for polticians to "lead the way" green you'd better be patient - over multiple generations. Gore is a joke, Kennedy, while quite adept at consuming alcohol, is a bigger joke - they are classic cocktail party liberals - the true "do as I say, not as I do" folks with opinions and positions that sway in the wind.

You can burn 100% bio-diesel - you just need to heat the fuel when the temp goes down - and you need to purge the pump, lines and injectors - a simple enough process from an engineering point of view - probably a real SOB for a production situation.

Gas prices - most people just don't care - oh - they'll moan when they fill up - but if gas prices are an issue how do you explain the horsepower wars going on in the auto industry? Cars are getting bigger and bigger (no doubt to accomodate our increasing national girth) - I see some commpanies bragging about their cars getting 30MPG - big deal - my 22 year old Saab gets 33 - it'll get 36 if I drive like granny.

Diversion of food crops to fuel crops - you may not see the issue crop up (pun intended) in the Western world - at least not in the near future - but in the third world where starvation is a fact of daily life - where dictators rule and line their pockets at the expense of their nations with no shame what so ever, where people like Mugabe are in charge (or Robert Taylor) - given the choice between their bank accounts and their people guess who comes out 2nd - the people. Sorry if I offend anyone, but our current crop of national politicians doesn't really have much of an ethics edge over the likes of Mugabe or Taylor. They seem to enjoy lining their pockets at our expense.

CAFE standards - great idea - so GM makes a bunch of little cars with indequate engines and sells 'em to Hertz or Avis - while it sells Suburbans and C30's to Jack and Jill Common-Schmuck - GM is in "compliance" with the new CAFE standards and it means nothing. Want an incentive to drive higher mileage cars? Tax vehicles - on an annual basis - that get below a certain mileage - unless you can prove why you NEED a big vehicle (and "I don't like little cars" or "I'm fat" would NOT be acceptable answers).

Yet what do we do? In our state parks we construct ATV trails so our ever fatter and more out of shape population can drive to where they used to have to walk - not only burning resources driving the ATV's BUT in the big trucks required to transport 'em.

Me? Once I figure out the issue I'm having with my wireless router I'm going to start working from home three days a week - that cuts out 360 miles a week or 12 gallons of fuel consumption - if it works out OK I may only be in the office when I need to be here - heaven!

Instead of driving three hours a day to/from the office I'll be able to ride my bicycle or walk into town to buy a news paper in the morning - perhaps use my old bicycle trailer to take the recycling to the center on Saturdays -

Then I'll feel like I'm doing something!

Steve