Fueling Our Future | Teen Ink

Fueling Our Future MAG

By Anonymous

   It is scary to think about a world without oil or oil reserves, but scientists predict that the earth's oil reserves will be used up within a hundred years.

With this in mind, what is the United States and other countries going to do when the oil reserves run out? Countries will have to find new ways of powering factories and running their cars. Many people do not realize that corn, soybean, and sugar cane are alternatives to petroleum products. Argentina uses a 100% sugar cane fuel to run their automobiles and to run over half of their businesses. The fuel that awaits us at the gas station is approximately 10% ethanol blends. The use of ethanol fuels (or corn fuels) is the key to the future power supply. If the government would mandate corn fuels as a profitable, alternative source to petroleum products, the profits would increase, causing more revenue for smaller states and countries.

In some states a 100% blend of corn fuel is being used to power police cars and buses. On the average corn fuels (ethanol) produce half the harmful toxins into the air and reduces the amount of fuel consumed by cars. This sounds great and everyone is wondering why corn fuels are not being used. Well, I will tell you. Ethanol is derived from extracting parts of corn and processing it until it forms a liquid state (ethanol). This procedure costs on the average of two dollars a gallon. This is one reason why it is not very popular, but if people would have known that 50,000 people die in car wrecks a year, would they have bought cars? If people would realize that two dollars a gallon is cheaper in the long run, they might decide to invest in it. If oil reserves are running out, imagine the inflation of gas prices which could be prevented with ethanol fuels.

We as people, and consumers ,need to wake up and see that we are destroying our natural ecosystems and habitats. We are playing Russian roulette if we keep using petroleum products and not attempting to find alternative power sources. We have the future in our hands; we need to decide to do with it. The answer is clear: ethanol. ^



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i love this so much!