An extravagant conservative

by Denny Banister

When it comes to my car, I am very conservative. Not necessarily in the style or color of the car – I drive a bright red car with styled steel wheels, bucket seats and floor shift. But when it comes to oil, fuel, tires, batteries and other replacement items, I am very careful as to what goes in and on my car.

Many auto manufacturers claim their vehicles can go further distances between oil changes than the old standard of 3,000 miles, but I still change oil at, or near, the 3,000-mile point. I would try the synthetic motor oils, but can’t bring myself to wait long enough between oil changes to make it pay.

Many people change their oil filters every other oil change, and some filters claim they can last much longer, but I opt for a new one each time I change oil. Now that I consider my car care habits, perhaps I’m not conservative at all – I’m spending quite liberally, perhaps to the point of extravagance.

When ethanol first became available, like most Americans, I was hesitant. As someone who is employed by agriculture, you would probably expect me to say I switched immediately to the farm-produced fuel. But I heard the negative stories being spread about ethanol, and even though they were generated by the oil industry, I was just concerned enough to avoid the ethanol pump at the gas station.

That was years ago – now I seek out the ethanol pump, even if the price is slightly higher, because I do care so much about what I put in my car’s gas tank. Ethanol burns cleaner, both in the engine and what’s coming from the car’s exhaust pipe, and ethanol has higher octane than regular unleaded. And my car runs great on ethanol.

Perhaps it’s because of finally convincing ‘conservatives’ like me the ethanol industry is booming. It also has a lot to do with MTBE additives used in regular gasoline. MTBE was discovered in much of the nation’s water supply, and ethanol contains no MTBE. Regardless of why, the ethanol industry is flourishing.

The Renewable Fuels Association announced the ethanol industry set an annual production record of 1.77 billion gallons in 2001, up nearly 10 percent from the previous year and up 20 percent from 1999. In response to the growing demand, 20 new ethanol plants began construction in 2001 – Missouri has two new ethanol plants.

Not only does this mean cleaner air and higher octane fuel, it also means less reliance on foreign oil and a great deal more business for American farmers. Last year’s record production required over 700 million bushels of corn, and future ethanol consumption can keep a lot of family farmers on the farm.

(Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, Mo., is the assistant director of public affairs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)