Ford, Verasun team up to promote ethanol

Little by little the business world and the political world are making moves to divorce the American public from foreign non-renewable oil. Even under the best and most noble circumstances, the flow of new technology from the laboratory to the factory floor to the consumers home is painfully slow. Only the monied classes get first crack at new toys and then years later they become available at a price the rest of us can afford. Hell, I know people who still can't afford cable television let alone a hybrid car.

None-the-less, we must continue to push for renewable sources of transportation fuel from both the business world as well as the political world. The last time I dealt with this subject, I cited articles that talked about state and city legislation that promoted biodiesel. The article below talks about utlizing ethanol, which is, "also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol, is a flammable, colorless chemical compound, one of the alcohols that is most often found in alcoholic beverages...Ethanol can be used as an alcohol fuel (often mixed with gasoline) and in a wide variety of industrial processes."

I'd rather be driving a car with grain alcohol than drinking grain alcohol, I'll tell you that much. If you've ever drank the stuff, imagine your the inside of your entire body melting and then shooting up volcano style through your eyeballs...yeah, just make fuel out of that stuff and call it a day.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. (F) announced on Friday a tie-up with VeraSun Energy Corp., a renewable energy company, aimed at expanding support for vehicles capable of running on up to 85 percent ethanol, known as E85.

The partnership will concentrate on growing the ethanol infrastructure in 2006 and converting existing fuel pumps to VeraSun's branded E85 in existing retail outlets. A consumer awareness campaign will also be launched.