Proposal Essay
4/21/01
Do the gas prices frustrate you every time you pull up to the pump? Gas companies are charging too much for the natural resource that is turned into what we know as gasoline. Gas companies discourage research and new ideas every year. Afraid of losing the market that they have cornered they buy patents. This way the patents will never be used and they still have the market cornered. Ethanol is a much safer and more economical solution to our gas problem. It is cleaner burning and it can be produced from year to year. Ethanol will allow the United States public to get away from the corruption of big gas business and finally be able to enjoy better prices at the pump. The gas companies do not need to be relied on any longer. The United States public should use ethanol. The economic help would be tremendous. It creates jobs, lowers gas prices, and reduces imports of oil to the U.S.
The problem today is the gas companies make too much on their products. Shell’s profits jumped enormously in only three months. The Company announced an 80% jump in earnings for the last three months, to $3.25 billion (Shell Posts Record Profits). Ethanol would allow these profits to go straight to
the farmers. America’s public needs to be able to spend less on gasoline. Ethanol gasoline would be a sure way of lowering prices. The ethanol that is produced in these plants comes form the corn produced by farmers. The finished product from the plant is completely safe for all gasoline automobiles. The cost that it would take to get the ethanol plants started would be worth the money. Ethanol plants will be expensive to start but they pay for themselves over a few years. Although gas prices might not fall immediately from the change, gas companies would be forced to lower prices if ethanol took over the market.
Ethanol is produced with the help of farmers. It comes from the common cash crop called corn. These crops are grown throughout the United States and mainly in the Midwest. They can be produced every year and hauled straight to the local plant. Using ethanol would help these struggling farmers. The corn prices have been down for some time and the economic help from using ethanol would be astronomical. Farmers would haul more corn each year because of the demand that the ethanol plant brings. “The demand for grain created by ethanol production increases net farm income more than $12 billion annually” (ethanol info). In the future the demand for ethanol would be greater which would produce a larger farm income each year. Ethanol could help the farmers more than anything else. The raise in income would be dramatic because the use of ethanol today is only minimal and it produces $12 billion in income each year. The more ethanol used the more the annual income it will produce. This would cause the corn price to go up and more farmers would be able to stay in business.
There would be no more struggles with foreign nations to get better oil prices. The money that is spent on the imports of oils from other countries will not be needed as much and hopefully in the future will not be needed at all. This new and safe energy producer known as ethanol could be produced and manufactured in the United States. “Today, ethanol reduces the demand for gasoline and MTBE imports by 98, 000 barrels per day. A 98, 000 barrel/day replacement of imported MTBE would represent a $1.1 billion reduction to our annual trade deficit” (ethanol info). This would create new jobs for the American public and help the economy. “The ethanol industry is responsible for more than 40,000 direct and indirect jobs, creating more than $1.3 billion in increased household income annually, and more than $12.6 billion over the next five years” (ethanol info). The more ethanol is used in the U.S., the more jobs it will produce. With these new jobs, ethanol could help small towns by producing more jobs for the community.
Another help with using ethanol and the most needed to the American public is the lowered gas prices. Lowered gas prices would affect everyone’s lives immediately. The use of ethanol today is only minimal. In some gas stations they use a 10% ethanol blend with the gasoline. According to the Alternative Fuels Data Center this blend could be as high as 85% ethanol (AFDC). This would put pressure on gas companies to lower prices and the more ethanol the less the United States public has to deal with oil companies. With a higher ethanol blend the price to fuel an automobile each year would be significantly less. Everyone could appreciate these savings.
The use of ethanol is also better on the environment than gasoline. Ethanol is much safer burning than gasoline. It burns cleaner and it puts out less toxic fumes into the environment. “Ethanol is low in reactivity and high in oxygen contents, making it an effective tool in reducing ozone pollution” (ethanol info). Protecting the ozone has become a priority for the government over the last few years. Using ethanol is an easy way to help bring down pollution annually. Gasoline is more polluting than ethanol. “A 10% ethanol blend reduces carbon monoxide better tan any other reformulated gasoline blend by more than 25%” (ethanol info). The reduction of carbon monoxide would be even greater in an 85% ethanol blend. This shows that ethanol is not only good for the economy but it is also good for the environment as well. The more use of ethanol the better it is for the U. S.
Each of these things is important to America and it would help if ethanol were used wider in the gasoline industry.
The solution to our gas problem is right in front of us. Ethanol works better in automobiles and it also has economic benefits for everyone in the United States. Why are we still looking further, because gas companies are not allowing it? Write to your congressmen and senators and tell them you demand an immediate response to this problem. Let them know that you want research to be done so gas problems will be solved. The problem will not just go away. We all are responsible for letting people know there is a better solution to the gas problem, the solution is ethanol.
“Ethanol General Information” Alternative Fuels Data Center.
26 March. 2001 http://www.afdc.nrel.gov/altfuel/eth_general.html
“Ethanol Info” American Coalition for Ethanol. 20 April. 2001
http://www.ethanol.org/ethano_info.html
“Ethanol sparks renewed debate as Midwest gas prices soar”
Environmental News Network. 20 April. 2001
Mason, Andrea. “Drivers Getting Bad Case of Gas Prices”
Student Advantage. 26 March. 2001
http://studentadvantage.com/article/print/0,4281,c6-i69-t309-a34573,00.html
“Shell Posts Record Profits” BBC News. 20 April. 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1003000/1003290.stm