Ethanol Mandate for Iowa?

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...
Which, of course, was written before the unprecedented run-up in prices
since Hurricane Katrina.

"Unprecedented"?

That word means something other than what you seem to think it means.

C'mon Jay, "disaster for many of us?" I doubt a dollar per gallon increase
would stop you from flying. Most folks are still flying even with the
dramatic increases in AvGas prices from just a few years ago. Any aircraft
owner with a financial buffer that thin won't be one for very long (or at
least have an airworthy aircraft).

Really? I meet (and know) plenty of owners who fly on a shoe-string
budget. That's what "grass-roots" aviation is all about.

These are the guys who own C-140s, C-150s, Ercoupes and any of a wide
assortment of GA planes that cost less than $20,000. To them, fuel is
THE single most important factor, and their highest cost of ownership.


If the State increases their cost $10 - $15 per hour by mandating
ethanol it will certainly tip the odds against them.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Unprecedented is a touch strong. Katrina sent crude up all of $5 per
barrel to $70. It has back to $65.82. From May, 2005 to September, 2005,
crude went from $50 to $65 per barrel.

http://www.wtrg.com/daily/clfclose.gif

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message

Which, of course, was written before the unprecedented run-up in
prices
since Hurricane Katrina.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I agree 100%. The message comes off as whiny, and contains unnecessary
details.

You must hide the true nature of your concern, and point to false issues,
like supposed economic benefits of GA airports in non-remote parts of the
country.

"Please continue to sponsor legislation that makes ethanol- gasoline
cheaper than regular unleaded gasoline."

So...rainforests, bad. Taking away your cheap aviation fuel, bad. But
subsidizing corn production in Iowa, good?

No. I personally find the practice of subsidizing ethanol-based fuel
to be appalling (although they do it by taxing it *less* rather than
actually giving any money to the producers) -- but if they (as in
American politicians) are trying to find an effective way to make
people use more ethanol, I think that this method is less distasteful
than *mandating* its use.

If ethanol were actually an economically viable improvement to gasoline, we
wouldn't need laws to encourage it.

Agree 100% -- but I'm stuck in the reality of Iowa politics.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

So, rather than bitching about the world turning to a gasahol blend of some
sort (which it seems to be doing) let's light a fire under those who hold
the STCs to determine WHY gasahol is bad for the aircraft environment and do
something about it.

Bravo! I've been asking this for years, to no avail.

What the heck is in an aircraft engine/fuel system that can't be made
"ethanol safe" for more than a few bucks worth of rubber seals?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:
So, rather than bitching about the world turning to a gasahol blend
of some sort (which it seems to be doing) let's light a fire under
those who hold the STCs to determine WHY gasahol is bad for the
aircraft environment and do something about it.

Bravo! I've been asking this for years, to no avail.

What the heck is in an aircraft engine/fuel system that can't be made
"ethanol safe" for more than a few bucks worth of rubber seals?

Really. Solve the problem, not the symptom.

Unprecedented is a touch strong. Katrina sent crude up all of $5 per
barrel to $70. It has back to $65.82. From May, 2005 to September, 2005,
crude went from $50 to $65 per barrel.

Really? Isn't it funny (sad?) that the gas stations around here used
Katrina as an excuse to increase prices by 90%?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay, maybe one of your friendly Iowa neighbors who wanted to screw you
for buzzing his house with your noisy airplane raised the prices by 90%,
but 22% was the average in the state of Iowa. On 9/1, the average price
of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in Iowa was $2.47. It peaked at
$3.03 and fell back to $2.61.

http://iowastategasprices.com/retail_price_chart.aspx

The US DOE and EPA has a site that reports gasoline prices in the US. We
found it very useful putting together a trip earlier this year.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/gasprices/states/

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
oups.com...

Unprecedented is a touch strong. Katrina sent crude up all of $5 per
barrel to $70. It has back to $65.82. From May, 2005 to September,
2005,
crude went from $50 to $65 per barrel.

Really? Isn't it funny (sad?) that the gas stations around here used
Katrina as an excuse to increase prices by 90%?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay, maybe one of your friendly Iowa neighbors who wanted to screw you
for buzzing his house with your noisy airplane raised the prices by 90%,
but 22% was the average in the state of Iowa. On 9/1, the average price
of a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in Iowa was $2.47. It peaked at
$3.03 and fell back to $2.61.

http://iowastategasprices.com/retail_price_chart.aspx

An interesting site, which (in this case, anyway) appears to be
remarkably wrong.

I buy a lot of gas, between five vehicles, an airplane, and half a
dozen gas-powered lawn implements. I've got a receipt that says I paid
$1.89 per gallon on 8/5/05 for regular unleaded gas, while the chart
shows a price of $2.05. At the height of the Katrina panic, I paid
$3.25 per gallon, while the chart shows a peak of just $3.00 per
gallon.

I know it's showing an "average" price, so variances are expected, but
that seems like a lot of variance. Also, Iowa City routinely has the
highest gas prices in the region, so the fact that we were far cheaper
than the "average" shown on 8/5 seems especially odd.

Regardless, the price (around here, anyway) went up 72% in a period of
a few weeks, yet oil prices only went up a smidge. (Of course, as we
already hashed over in previous posts, most of the price run up was due
to refining capacity and the market over-shooting a sustainable price.)


More to the point for this thread: The difference between car gas and
avgas has now grown to more than $1.00 difference. If we lose the
ability to burn car gas, a lot of pilots won't be able to fly nearly as
often -- and that hurts everyone in GA.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"