The " Ethanol " Question.

A few decades ago we were assured that the world was running out of oil.  The anti-car lobby was gleefully predicting the demise of the internal combustion engine because we were depleting the known oil reserves and major new discoveries were rare.  That was the start of petrol prices rising from a few centres a litre to the rate charged today.

In this twenty-first century we find ourselves living in a world that is awash with oil.  This  " black gold " has been discovered in a host of countries and uneconomic quantities dispersed in rock formations are being harvested by what is called a " fracking " process.  In Canada, a vast area of tar sands is yielding oil and OPEC no longer has a hand on the supply spigot and can dictate the price we will pay.  The price of oil has crashed to about fifty dollars a barrel.

During the oil scarcity era and its consequent price increase a new industry offered hope that the car age might survive.  It was found to be possible to replicate oil and refine something similar to petrol from various vegetable crops.  It was called " Ethanol " and a ten percent volume mixed with traditional petrol was quickly on the market. In New South Wales, laws are in place to force Ethanol to gain a six percent market share.  The producers of Ethanol are an important industrial entity in this state.

Unfortunately, it seems motorists are reluctant to use it.  It delivers a slightly lower mileage than traditional petrol and it sells a few centres a litre at a lower price, but its safety in a modern car engine is in doubt in some minds.  Stocking it is no longer an option for resellers.  The law requires the installation of tanks and pumps so all fuel outlets offer Ethanol.

The situation has changed completely.  We have a world over supplied with oil at precisely the time when the internal combustion engine is about to be replaced with electrically driven battery powered cars.  More to the point, the growing world population is facing a coming food shortage and the very crop that could assuage that hunger is being diverted to produce Ethanol.

Todays farmers are increasingly planting crops of corn under contract to Ethanol refiners with the result that the supply of corn is in short supply - and at an ever rising price.  We are seeing famine in countries unable to feed their own population and reliant on importing food with limited financial resources.  To rub salt into the wound, Australia motorists are being forced to buy a product that they would prefer to reject.

There is no easy answer.  Ethanol production is a big industry with a lot of capital invested and it has political clout.  Farmers have financial stability from a firm contractual price for their crop rather than the price vagaries of the open market and most fuel resellers have by now undertaken the expense to abide by the law and offer Ethanol.

Perhaps the only saving grace is that Ethanol is a totally Australian product while local oil extraction is less than our need and we are fast dispensing with refining capacity to turn it into motor fuel.
The problem seems to be to persuade Australian motorists to use it !