Pollution and Environment Essay - Modest Proposal for...

A Modest Proposal for Methanol and Ethanol Powered Cars We need more stringent regulations on car emissions... Lets add MTBE to the fuel- that will reduce pollution... If people would just stop driving so much, pollution wouldnt be so bad... People have long recognized the problems with the gasoline we used now. We have tried everything from putting regulations on emissions, to putting additives in the gasoline (only to discover later that MTBE got into the groundwater), to campaigns to get people off the road. However, more and more cars are on the roads as the population increases, and people are not going to stop driving. Additives are as likely to cause problems as they are to prevent them. Just changing the†¦show more content†¦To help protect the environment, our health, and our economic independence, the government should use all the revenues from the taxes on dirty fossil fuels to subsidize research and the production of alcohol burning cars. Problems with Cleaner Fuel Of course there are reasons why we have not converted to alcohol burning vehicles before. Ethanol costs more per gallon than gasoline. However, new technologies have the potential to produce ethanol at significantly smaller costs. Methanol, a high-performance liquid fuel made from wood or coal, can be produced at prices comparable to the prices of gasoline and natural gas. In addition, oil does not occur naturally in unlimited supply, and just in the past few years, gas prices have been increasing dramatically. Those prices will not fall back down. However, the introduction of an inexpensive alcohol-based fuel would provide an alternative means of power and give consumers more choices. Some people argue that decreasing the oil we use would harm the economies of countries like Venezuela that depend on America buying their oil. However, as third world countries grow and develop, they will also need fuel sources and the United States has no right to monopolize large portions of the available resources. Besides, it is not the responsibility of the United States to provide markets for all companies in the world. Markets come and go, and