१६ फेब्रुवारी, २००९

But what if I don't want my car running on cheese?

From this year's State of the State Address by Wisconsin Governor Doyle:
Let me recognize another innovator who did more with what he had, who saw more than just a cheese processing plant at the crossroads of a small central Wisconsin town. This is someone who took the leftover ingredients of cheesemaking – whey permeate – and found a way to turn it into a renewable fuel. He then set up a local distribution network for his cheese-based ethanol. I am proud to introduce Joe Van Groll.

You know, in other places, they just eat cheese. But here we wear it on our heads when we watch football and now, thanks to Joe, Wisconsin is the state where we can even use it to drive our cars.
Just tell me where I have to go — how much gas I have to burn getting to a place where I can buy gasoline without the fucking ethanol that is screwing up my gas mileage? I don't want to drive with cheese! I don't want to drive on corn! Quit forcing me to put food in my car.

IN THE COMMENTS: Michael H wrote:
Using corn to manufacture ethanol has driven up the price of tortillas in many third world countries, especially Mexico.

Using whey to manufacture ethanol is driving up the price of infant formula. some of which includes whey protein as a primary ingredient.

How an earth is that a good thing?

Foolish, elitist American politicians believe that they can make the world a better place, without any understanding or concern for the consequences of their actions.

४३ टिप्पण्या:

Leland म्हणाले...

Nothing worse than a constipated car.

Original Mike म्हणाले...

Quit forcing me to put food in my car.

Don Althouse de la Mancha.

I'm Full of Soup म्हणाले...

"Quit forcing me to put food in my car."

I know. Those fast food drive-thru's are so hard to resist!

I'm Full of Soup म्हणाले...

Btw Althouse, I am not sure if you are correct about this ethanol mileage thingy.

But I doubt our beloved Guvmint Central Planning Board would have allowed this to happen. It is surely the fault of the free market!

p म्हणाले...

Dear Lawyer!!!Congratulationes and succes for your blog
Yours sincerally,
Pablo Calvo

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Pablo made me laugh so hard I cried. I had to get up and find a towel to wipe away my tears. (I'll need to analyze my sense of humor later.)

अनामित म्हणाले...

Get used to the feeling. The phrase "But I don't want to ...." will become a fixture of your vocabulary.

The response will be, "That is an 'invidualist' way of thinking, get with the program."

Instugator म्हणाले...

Ann, why aren't you running premium in your TT?

I googled the requirements and found this page: http://www.fixya.com/cars/p699025-audi_2003_tt/manual-24560/page-5

The performance numbers were obtained with premium unleaded.

former law student म्हणाले...

I don't want to drive with cheese! I don't want to drive on corn! Quit forcing me to put food in my car.

Paying for costly car repairs will help stimulate the economy. I remember when California changed the requirements for diesel fuel, which ruined engines in most Mercedes and VW Diesels.

You will stimulate the economy further by buying a new car -- perhaps a Chevy that can run on all-American E85?

Remember, every drop of ethanol burned is one less penny in an Islamofascist's pocket.

Ron म्हणाले...

Maybe get a biodiesel engine and run on french fry oil! Increase McD's bottom...line!

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"The performance numbers were obtained with premium unleaded."

I originally used premium as recommended, and I was having some performance problems. I talked to my (excellent) mechanics about it, and they advised me NOT to use premium. That surprised me, but I did it, and it solved the problem.

The problem, if I remember correctly, was that it was hard to start. It would stall out more than once, which I thought was pretty lame.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

I will check the pump, and if premium is ethanol free, I will start buying it again. I am so pissed off at this requirement of buying ethanol. Why not let ethanol be sold with price competing against gas and see how cheap it has to get before people want to buy it? I'm betting damned cheap.

KCFleming म्हणाले...

Here's what Rep. Maxine Waters said to the president of Shell Oil during a House hearing:
“And guess what this member [i.e. herself] would be all about? This member would be all about socializing — er, uh.... would be about … [pause] … basically … taking over, and the government running all of your companies.”

Enjoy your new socialist leaders.

They will dictate what you eat and what you can drive and what you can purchase.

Compulsory group exercises to combat obesity will be a bright new addition to nationalized health care.

And tone down the rhetoric, Althouse. Criticism of the government is not wise.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi म्हणाले...

In southeastern Wisconsin, premium gas also contains ethanol. I'm not sure about Madison

The ethanol requirement will not change since there is a huge political constituency for this crap. It doesn't matter that it increases food prices, results in starvation and famine in the third world or has no real environmental benefits. What matters is that Obama benefits.

Original Mike म्हणाले...

Why not let ethanol be sold with price competing against gas and see how cheap it has to get before people want to buy it?

Man, did you vote for the wrong guy. I'm not saying McCain is nirvana, but one (Democratic) party rule is absolutely not going to give you what you're asking for here.

Sloanasaurus म्हणाले...

Ha Ha Ha. Welcomed to the liberal state. Where the government decides what is best. Wait until you don't qualify for a hospital visit. Ethanol is just the beginning.

All praise his great secular majesty Obama. The great giver of rights.

Original Mike म्हणाले...

Wait until you don't qualify for a hospital visit

and are not allowed to pay for it yourself.

Dust Bunny Queen म्हणाले...

Why not let ethanol be sold with price competing against gas and see how cheap it has to get before people want to buy it?

Because that would defeat the momentum of socializing the US economy. If we let people make their own decisions, they might just get used to being free and question authority. (Timothy Leary dearie)

On the road to serfdom with or without ethanol....I think we are about step #9. Obviously we are well past step #7.

JohnAnnArbor म्हणाले...

and are not allowed to pay for it yourself.

Where will Canadians go for healthcare when that happens? I mean, as it is now, our hospitals have lots of Canadians paying for what is supposedly free north of the border.

Original Mike म्हणाले...

Where will Canadians go for healthcare when that happens?

They'll be SOL.

I think we'll all be going to India.

Wince म्हणाले...

Which raises an important question:

Would you get less gas milage from fuel made of Swiss Cheese?

KCFleming म्हणाले...

Some useful quotes to say to yourself every day:

"All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny."

"When the individual feels, the community reels."

"The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray. It is better that one should suffer than that many should be corrupted."

"Unorthodoxy threatens more than the life of a mere individual; it strikes at Society itself."

"Community, Identity, Stability"


I have always found it passing strange how quickly feminists traded patriarchy for the suffocating embrace of state control, helping to make inescapable the worst aspects of patriarchy.

अनामित म्हणाले...

Pogo -

The mantra was that women didn't need men (like a fish don't need bicycles.) But life on your own is hard, and slogans don't help with the bills or raising children without a husband. So the state steps in to provide that help and protection. "Liberation" was the sales pitch, not the goal. It always is.

I'm Full of Soup म्हणाले...

Like Pogo advised:

Ixnay on the overnment-gay iticism-cray. It's not atriotic-pay.

ot-gay it ok?

JohnAnnArbor म्हणाले...

Ixnay on the overnment-gay iticism-cray. It's not atriotic-pay.

Dang. It used to be, I was told repeatedly, not so long ago.

KCFleming म्हणाले...

I assume Ann Arbor is the one in the Peoples Republic of Michigan.

A once-great state, home of Russell Kirk, now becoming a third world country due to leftism.

Didn't they used to make cars there in Michigan, once?

KCFleming म्हणाले...

News from The Peoples Republic of Chicago:

The University of Chicago Medical Center said Monday it will lay off 450 employees, about 5 percent of its work force, as the recession hits it everywhere from patient admissions to Medicaid repayments from the state.

U. of C.'s plan to divert patients from the emergency room has stirred criticism that it is trying to dump poor people elsewhere.

First lady Michelle Obama is a former hospital vice president, and former hospital lawyer Susan Sher is an associate counsel for the White House. Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett used to chair the hospital's board.

And Dr. Eric Whitaker, an executive vice president at the medical center in charge of finding alternatives to the ER overload, is a basketball buddy of Obama."


Medicaid, Medicare, etc etc.
Say hello to free healthcare for all, Cuba-style!

The Drill SGT म्हणाले...

U. of C.'s plan to divert patients from the emergency room has stirred criticism that it is trying to dump poor people elsewhere.

Michele, Axelrod, and Jarret, all trying to dump poor people.

here is the lead from the paper in August:

Sen. Barack Obama's wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don't have private insurance -- primarily poor, black people -- to other health care facilities.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1122691,CST-NWS-hosp23.article

Rob C म्हणाले...

Two comments:

1) I'd note that in this case you're creating ethanol from a waste product instead of an actual food product. (So, it's better in that sense, but still hits you on the mileage.)

2) Swiss cheese derived fuel would give you excellent fuel economy but you have to keep the car in neutral.

Original Mike म्हणाले...

Funny, Rob.

theobromophile म्हणाले...

This is someone who took the leftover ingredients of cheesemaking – whey permeate – and found a way to turn it into a renewable fuel. He then set up a local distribution network for his cheese-based ethanol. I am proud to introduce Joe Van Groll.

Joe Van Groll or John Galt?

I don't want to drive with cheese! I don't want to drive on corn!

Sounds like "Green Eggs and Ham," but for automobiles. Maybe the root of the problem is that which works for kids and food doesn't work with cars, which are a bit more stubborn and less open to trying new things (Pixar movies aside).

The Dude म्हणाले...

Foul language and whining? Has the blogger assumed the role of commenter? Please do not usurp our job. We have so little...

Cedarford म्हणाले...

Doyle - This is someone who took the leftover ingredients of cheesemaking – whey permeate – and found a way to turn it into a renewable fuel. He then set up a local distribution network for his cheese-based ethanol.

Great. Whey used to be a cheap filler material, with high protein, keeping food costs low and the surplus formulated into powder that was donated abroad for countries with ongoing adequacy of diet problems.
Now it goes from feeding 200 people for a year into some asshole driving 27 miles on the ethanol made from it with the sludge of now-wrecked proteins dumped being lauded as a fucking planet-saver.
And now we have people paying 25.99 for a 10 kilo sack of rice that used to cost 8 bucks in Saveway or in Bangladesh because sanctimonious jerks diverted major food crops other than rice into ethanol....and left us with a cussing law professor too, lamenting her wrecked mileage and adding costs! It would make a great Weblog Diva rant if Althous is right...that someone "reputable" can back her claim that ethanol dilution makes her engine run so inefficiently that she actually burns more fossil fuel.

From the last comment by our persecuted law prof on ethanol, one person reminded us that new car engines may be formulated for ethanol, but it is causing major financial harm to citizens running other types of pre-existing ethanol blend engines on boats, old autos, trucks, farm equipment.

Michael Haz म्हणाले...

Using corn to manufacture ethanol has driven up the price of tortillas in many third world countries, especially Mexico.

Using whey to manufacture ethanol is driving up the price of infant formula. some of which includes whey protein as a primary ingredient.

How an earth is that a good thing?

Foolish, elitist American politicians believe that they can make the world a better place, without any understanding or concern for the consequences of their actions.

former law student म्हणाले...

Whey can be used to make ricotta cheese, by the way.

A once-great state, home of Russell Kirk, now becoming a third world country due to leftism.

Still home to such centers of right-wing thought as Hillsdale College. Too bad Cap'n Domino's moved Ave Maria to Fla.

Michael Haz म्हणाले...

*Apologies for bad proofreading*

Freeman Hunt म्हणाले...

Maybe they can come up with a car that runs on bullshit. Then Congress really will have solved our fuel problems.

Smilin' Jack म्हणाले...

Using corn to manufacture ethanol has driven up the price of tortillas in many third world countries, especially Mexico.

Screw Mexico. When it starts driving up the price of Jack Daniels is where I draw the line.

chuckR म्हणाले...

Crack government scientists are even now working on advanced vehicle and fuel technology.

Well, somebody's constituents must have a lot of trees.

pst314 म्हणाले...

Running on cheese?

Sheesh, what happens if a car catches on fire? Do you get a repeat of the Great Madison Cheese Warehouse Conflagration, with rivers of butter and molten cheese running across the highway? Houses downwind coated with a layer of smelly grease? Oh the humanity!

Joe म्हणाले...

One of the most promising technologies is algae that produces petroleum. Don't hear much about it in the mainstream.

halojones-fan म्हणाले...

I was visiting my parents last month. They live in Valley Forge, near Philadelphia PA. At the local gas station, the pumps were emblazoned with "CONTAINS ETHANOL" stickers. On one pump, someone had crossed out "ETHANOL" and written "YOUR FOOD". Some wag had come along and added "TASTYKAKES?"

john..... म्हणाले...

I don't want to drive with cheese! I don't want to drive on corn! Quit forcing me to put food in my car.

hahaha i have the same problem dears, my age old cadillac is drinking gas as if it were coke, i must say nice post and greatly revealing too and not to mention the humor it spreads, my intentions of visiting this site was to find at least a single guy who 'd like to buy my car but this should not be gauged as a publicity stunt as i do not care to go in for CFC programs, nor do i trust used car dealers anybody in here with a slice of advice for me please comment