You have heard all those who want to mind everybody else’s business scream about your SUV. How you should feel guilty about driving one because you are aiding terrorist and destroying the environment. Well maybe you are, but isn’t it going a bit far when we don’t have even the freedom to choose what we drive? If are willing to pay $50 for a tank of fuel that will take you 200 miles, I think you should have that right. I like paying $16 for a tank that will take me 400 miles better; of course I’d like it better were it four or five dollars.

The problem is that we should be able to drive what we want and can afford, and not dirty up all our air, and help those who wish us dead. And we can. We may not do it, but it is completely in our power to do it. What we all together must realize is that it is not so important what we pour our fuel into, but rather what the fuel is we are putting in it. The gasoline we now use is distilled from petroleum crude oil, a resource we have in great supply, but not nearly so great as our colossal appetite for it. Because we can’t supply it domestically we have no choice but to import it. The United Kingdom has a vast North Sea reserve and we import enormous quantities form them. This adds to our trade deficit and is therefore damaging to our economy, however the UK is our ally and doing business with them is much more favorable than doing business with counties and peoples who are trying to destroy us. But we require so much oil that we must get it from everywhere. OPEC, the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries, is a cartel of mostly Middle Eastern countries; Venezuela being the notable exception. That their anti-competitive practice of suppliers banning together to control the price of a commodity is unethical and would be illegal in this country, should be enough for us not to trade with them to say nothing of the fact that of every dollar we Americans spend on their oil much of it goes to sponsor terrorism and acts of violence against us and our allies. We are most literally trading with the enemy. The attacks of 9/11 were funded by American dollars paid to Saudi Arabia for oil.

We can fix all this by simply using alcohol as a motor fuel rather that gasoline. The Model T was originally designed to run off alcohol, but because gasoline was cheep and being discarded from the distillation of kerosene anyway, they switched to gas. Today’s modern automobiles with their computer controlled fuel injection systems could easily be made to use alcohol. Many new cars are already multi-fuel ready. Most South American countries today use an ethanol product which is at least 75% alcohol.

There are three main reasons to switch to alcohol fuel in all gasoline powered cars. Any one of these reason alone are compelling enough to make the transition, together they may be our epitaph.

We can supply our own alcohol. While there are naysayers who say otherwise, we can unquestionable produce enough alcohol to meet our needs. An alcohol-for-fuel industry would have to be created. The relative small volumes of alcohol made for human consumption and medical prepossess would be nothing to the vast refining operations to supply the millions upon millions of gallons needed to fuel our cars. But to question that we can get it done is ridiculous; just build more stills. It might become a cottage industry; I’m sure there are some good ol’ boys around here that know how to make alcohol.

The present logistical and delivery systems can be completely utilized. The same trucks which now bring gasoline to pumps at the store on the corner can bring alcohol to those same pumps. The oil companies, who are the major opponents to an alcohol fuel system, could provide the distillation and refining facilities. They should take a hint for the tobacco industry. That industry knows that it will one day die, so the companies in that industry have bought food companies, financial service businesses, and other non-tobacco ventures. While the oil industry will not die in my lifetime, we should not buy one drop of oil from Saudi Arabia to burn in our cars.

Stopping the importation of oil would not only severely cripple the money pipeline to Moslem terrorist, it would also balance our trade deficit. It is true we have created many new potential problems in trade by shipping our jobs overseas, nevertheless it is oil which puts us at the greatest disadvantage. Understanding trade deficits is a topic for another time; but know this – our trade deficit negatively impacts each and every American.

The second major reason that we should burn alcohol in our cars instead of gasoline is that it is a renewable resource. We have used enormous amounts of oil, and there are even now immense amounts in the ground that we have not pumped out, and probably much more that we have not yet discovered. But one fact is inescapable. The amount of oil, however large that amount is, is finite. When it is gone, it is gone. We cannot make more of it. One day we will run out. Is it not smart to save an unreplenishable resource for uses which only it can supply? Why burn it up in our cars when there is a replensihable and renewable substitute? We can create a perpetual supply of alcohol.

The third of the major reasons to switch now to an alcohol-for-fuel system is that it is immeasurably cleaner burning that any fossil fuels. There has recently been a study which showed that our automobiles are the chief factor in air pollution. Coal-fired electric power plants were previously though to be the number one culprit. Whether they are number one or two on the list of dirty air makers, changing to an alcohol fuel would make our air a great deal cleaner for us and all of our posterity.

There has been and will continue to be those who fight with all their might to stop this from happening, but they all are motivated by self-serving reasons and hidden agendas. But it must happen. We owe it to our children.

Stopping the importation of oil would not only severely cripple the money pipeline to Moslem terrorist, it would also balance our trade deficit. It is true we have created many new potential problems in trade by shipping our jobs overseas, nevertheless it is oil which puts us at the greatest disadvantage. Understanding trade deficits is a topic for another time; but know this – our trade deficit negatively impacts each and every American.

The second major reason that we should burn alcohol in our cars instead of gasoline is that it is a renewable resource. We have used enormous amounts of oil, and there are even now immense amounts in the ground that we have not pumped out, and probably much more that we have not yet discovered. But one fact is inescapable. The amount of oil, however large that amount is, is finite. When it is gone, it is gone. We cannot make more of it. One day we will run out. Is it not smart to save an unreplenishable resource for uses which only it can supply? Why burn it up in our cars when there is a replensihable and renewable substitute? We can create a perpetual supply of alcohol.

The third of the major reasons to switch now to an alcohol-for-fuel system is that it is immeasurably cleaner burning that any fossil fuels. There has recently been a study which showed that our automobiles are the chief factor in air pollution. Coal-fired electric power plants were previously though to be the number one culprit. Whether they are number one or two on the list of dirty air makers, changing to an alcohol fuel would make our air a great deal cleaner for us and all of our posterity.

There has been and will continue to be those who fight with all their might to stop this from happening, but they all are motivated by self-serving reasons and hidden agendas. But it must happen. We owe it to our children.