Champagne in the Tank

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You may have heard of what are styled “eFuels” – by which is meant a kind of manufactured gasoline that is “carbon neutral.” By which is meant that no more “carbon” is “emitted” by burning it than is removed during the manufacture of it.

The process involves splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity generated by not burning anything; i.e., solar panels and wind turbines. Voila – “green” hydrogen. “Carbon” is also “captured” – that is, taken out of the air by various means – and that can be used to “offset” whatever “carbon” is generated in the making/use of the “eFuels.”

You can imagine what this is going to cost.

Estimates project $20 per gallon. Comparable to the cost of a gallon of race gas.

The good news is – ostensibly – that engines won’t be forced entirely out of production. The bad news is that almost no one will be able to afford to fuel them. This is not a problem for exotic brands such as Ferrari and Porsche and Lamborghini – which have invested large sums in these “eFuels” to keep their exotic cars from becoming exotically priced battery powered devices.

If you can afford a Ferrari, you can afford $20 per gallon.

Of course, most of us will never be able to afford a Ferrari – or even a Porsche (the latter being relatively affordable vs. Ferrari in that it is still possible to buy a Porsche for less than $100,000 ).

But – wait! – Toyota is apparently working on “carbon neutral” fuels, too! The good news is that most of us can afford a Toyota. The bad news is it will probably cost as much to fuel a “carbon neutral” Toyota as it does to “eFuel” a a Ferrari. Which leads to the same result – i.e., driving anything with an engine will be become exotic.

There is a charming – and depressing – naivety on display here.

Toyota (and Mazda and Subaru, too) all seem to think that they’ll be able to comply their way out of this. That all they have to do is – essentially – vote harder. Just figure out a way to make engines (and fuel) that satisfy the regulatory apparat and the apparat will allow them to continue making engines and selling cars.

They don’t understand – because they are not evil – and it is hard for not-evil to understand evil. The why? escapes them. More finely, they default-believe the why? is reasonable rather than evil. This is of course understandable. Most people instinctively assume other people are basically good people – and most are. But there are those who aren’t – and they are the ones who are behind the evil.

It was the same during the “pandemic.” Most people wore facial underwear because they wanted to be nice to those who were afraid – and because they figured if they went along with it, it’d end soon enough. That reason would prevail and that the intentions of those behind the forced “masking” were good, just mistaken.

They failed to understand that they were being shit-tested (to use a vulgar term to describe a very real tactic) by evil people, who wanted to see just how much control could be exerted over people; how much abuse people would put up with.

We saw just how much.

Toyota and the other manufacturers do not see it.

In order to provide our customers with diverse options to achieve carbon neutrality, it is necessary to take on the challenge of evolving engines that are in tune with the energy environment of the future,” says Koji Sato, president and CEO of Toyota. “The three companies, which share the same aspirations, will refine engine technologies through friendly competition.”

They may be “friendly.” The problem is the apparat isn’t.

The end-goal is not “carbon neutral” fuels anymore than the drugs pushed into hundreds of millions of people’s bodies was meant to “stop the spread.” Both are means-toward-ends. “Carbon neutrality” is the carrot placed just ahead of the donkey, who stupidly believes he’ll get to eat it if he just takes another step forward.

The donkey never gets to eat the carrot, of course – no matter how many steps he takes forward.

This is harsh language but necessary language, for the time to understand to what is going on grows short. The apparat will never be satisfied because (among other things) that would obviate the need for the apparat and there has never in the history of human society been an apparat that closes itself down. “Emissions” – the ones that create pollution – have been a non-issue since at least the mid-1990s yet the EPA apparat has grown larger and more oppressive over the course of the 30 years-plus since “emissions” from vehicles became a non-issue.

They are not after “carbon neutrality.” They are after us.

We are the “carbon” they intend to “neutralize.” Just the same as “masking” was never about what they said it was about.

It is not an easy thing to understand. But we’d better try to, while there’s still time to.

. . .

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24 COMMENTS

  1. Fact is, no one will ever pay anything near $20/gal for this stuff. Well, no individual will pay $20/gal for the stuff. We’ll all pay, though subsidies, collectively for this fuel. Much like everyone paid for my solar panels. The true cost won’t ever be known, nor seen, because it would be impossible to run an economy capable of generating enough “economic activity” to run the Emerald City.

  2. You should look at this eFuel business in another way.

    Before Toyota, Mazda, and Subaru announced they were developing new engines for such fuels, Ferrari was the main manufacturer saying it would continue to develop IC engines.

    The real reason for Ferrari’s announcement is this. Brace yourself. Ferrari fully expects the elites will still be able to buy its IC cars even after such vehicles are banned for the rest of us. In other words, it’s the same principle as the European Union exempting elites’ yachts and private jets from carbon taxes.

    By the way, the Europeans have been whispering about banning private vehicles including EVs (for most of us) by 2050 to meet net-zero carbon rules. Producing and operating EVs still involve carbon emissions, so no cars for you and me. The elites will still be able to buy new Ferraris in 2050, though, I’m sure.

    I believe the main reason Toyota etc. will continue IC engine development is to sell those vehicles in the Third World, not in Western countries.

  3. Auto pollution from new vehicles was never an issue. I remember seeing that a 1966 Mustang, properly tuned emitted about 1/4th of the tail pipe emissions that an improperly tuned vehicle would produce. To be honest, I could care less, but only making a point. that pollution could be reduced with much less costly means that even what the CAA of 1970 had mandated. The switch to unleaded gas was ridiculous. Catalytic converters added in Sulfur Dioxide as a significant pollutant. The continuous fiddling with fuel has messed up fuel and refining efficiency. The additional refining additives and processes required to reduce “fuel volatility” adds 50 cents to the cost of every summer gallon of gasoline. If gasoline was to solve the volatility problem, why in hell does every car built since, say 1978 have an “evaporative emissions system?”

    I know the answers to all of the above, I just want to point it out.

  4. In related news: ‘Study: The Amount of Copper Needed for EVs Is ‘Impossible for Mining Companies to Produce’’

    “… “A normal Honda Accord needs about 40 pounds of copper. The same battery electric Honda Accord needs almost 200 pounds of copper.” […]

    Between now and 2050, the world will need to mine 115 percent more copper than has been mined in all of human history up until 2018, just to meet current copper needs without considering the green energy transition. To meet the copper demands of electrifying the global vehicle fleet, as many as six new large copper mines must be brought online annually over the next several decades, with about 40 percent of the production from these new mines being required for EV-related grid upgrades. […]

    The study suggests that instead of fully electrifying the entire US fleet of vehicles, focusing on manufacturing hybrid vehicles might be a more feasible approach. Professor Simon notes, “We know, for example, that a Toyota Prius actually has a slightly better impact on climate than a Tesla. Instead of producing 20 million EVs in the US and, globally, 100 million battery EVs each year, would it be more feasible to focus on building 20 million hybrid vehicles?””

    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2024/05/27/study-the-amount-of-copper-needed-for-evs-is-impossible-to-produce/

  5. Hi Eric,
    Maybe this was the case in the past. But currently government and those corporations are part of a single entity. They want more compliance and bureaucracy because it protects them and guarantees them a share of the market. Industry is almost always involved in those types of regulations.
    We live in corporatism after all and even If I or anyone else invented a water powered car tomorrow we could do shit with that idea since the bureaucracy compliance and “safety”. I would have no choice but to sell my idea to some of the giants if they are even interested in the first place. Car companies like that so they shouldn’t be looked at as innocent but as oligopolistic parasites that they are.

  6. E-fuels have got to be the most Rube Goldbergian “solution” to a “problem” that doesn’t even exist. I’d laugh but I probably should cry because these idiots are serious.

  7. It is indeed nigh impossible for a mostly sane person to comprehend the psychosis of the psychopath. “No one could be that evil.” Yes they can, and yes they are. It’s nothing new, It’s been around at least as long as governments have been.

  8. [“Carbon neutrality” is the carrot placed just ahead of the donkey, who stupidly believes he’ll get to eat it if he just takes another step forward.]

    exactly. It is why they are ‘allowing’ the sale of hybrids.

  9. eFuels proponents will have to pay off the midwest corn lobby. After all, ethanol was supposed to be the silver bullet.

  10. Regarding this new Champagne of gasoline, the existence of this won’t keep the bastards from going after your Mustang, Pinto or even your gas powered weed wacker. They’ll say you don’t need them since you live in a 200 square foot “Freedumb City” apartment or they will make your ’59 Edsel have to comply with the latest “emissions” or “safety” requirements to be driven and while you can put a newer drive train into an Edsel good luck on installing eight airbags and all the rest of the new “safety” nonsense.

    The sad thing is the “emissions” and “pollution” from the entire manufacture and processing of this wonder fuel will probably exceed that of conventionally produced gasoline.

  11. ‘They failed to understand that they were being shit-tested … to see just how much abuse people would put up with.’ — eric

    With sincere apologies for possibly going off topic — though there’s a night-and-day difference between the D and R party presidential candidates on EeeVees, emissions and e-fuels, the subject of this essay — something important happened last night. An American presidential candidate was convicted as a felon, in the midst of his campaign.

    All the markers of judicial pathology are on vivid display: selective prosecution; a leftist kangaroo court in a one-party state; an absurd state-federal crime-begat-a-crime bankshot theory of guilt for alleged offenses that occurred eight (8) years ago; a slam-dunk conviction by a biased partisan jury.

    This is the shot fired at Fort Sumter. This is the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo. USA: July 4, 1776 – May 30, 2024.

    It’s all over but the crying.

    • I agree with you Jim. I suspect that Trump will will on appeal but the biggest problem resulting from this will be the people’s trust in the legal system will sink lower than their trust in used car salesman and I say this knowing that there are honest used car salesman that sell good cars at a fair price.

      I further suspect this case will someday be taught in law school as an example of weaponized judges and courts.

      • I haven’t had any trust in the “legal system” since the first time I realized it doesn’t apply to the AGW’s who enforce it.

        • Amen, Mike –

          My Road to Damascus moment came when I was 19 and got “busted” – that is, arrested and caged – by armed government workers who almost certainly partake of alcohol for growing pot plants (which is now legal in the same state I was charged with a felony for growing them).

    • Jim, you seem like a nice, naive guy. As a former Fed, I can tell everyone the rot within the US gov. is so much worse than you can even imagine. Imagine a government, captured by an enemy, yet allowed to continue
      to exist, for the purposes of extraction of any resources from the captive population and land until nothing worthwhile is left. And then discarded. It is the life every US citizen is experiencing right now. Like it or not, put that in your pipe and smoke on it awhile, and pontificate on what you will do…GOOD LUCK!!!

      YMMV…

      • We are all Palestinians, now…
        What (((they))) are doing in Gaza and the West Bank, (((they))) have planned for the rest of us.
        There is only one solution…

    • “This is the shot fired at Fort Sumter. This is the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo. USA: July 4, 1776 – May 30, 2024.”

      It is actually nothing like those 2 events because in both cases exceptional amounts of ultra-violence proceeded soon afterwards to address the problems. This will not happen here. Everyone is FAR too comfortable, fat, and lazy still. Until people are displaced and starving normie will stay firmly planted on the couch.

      Amerimutts will continue to grouse & gripe in forums since they have electricity, heat, and a high standard of living. Get back to me when the gibs run out and the power is off for a month or so… until then. More talk, vote harder!

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