Fast Talk with Jeff Smith: The Value of Critical Thinking

I think being a journalist and being hit constantly by sales pitches from all kinds of different companies has made me perhaps a bit of a skeptic. It dawned on me the other day that while we live in an age where information is so easy to get that most people don’t bother to look for answers. They would rather let somebody else do the research and be spoon-fed the answer. That can be dangerous.

Don’t get me wrong, as a tech column writer part of my income stems from answering tech questions.  It’s fun because if I’m not familiar with the subject, it often leads me down a path I might not have taken on my own. As an example, about 10 years or so a reader asked about a fuel called E85 – something I had not heard about. If you are not be aware of it, this fuel is 85 percent ethanol (also known as white lightning) and 15 percent gasoline.

FAST TALK-17-07-A

This fuel has an amazing octane rating well in excess of 100 anti-knock index (AKI) which makes it a very affordable fuel especially for supercharged engines because it also cools the hot air exiting the blower – far better than gasoline. There are downsides of course. Ethanol is far less energy dense, which means an engine will must burn roughly 25 to 30 percent more to make the same power as on gasoline. This means fuel mileage will be less. But at price in the Midwest of less than $2.00 per gallon and a great octane rating – it’s a winner.

Roughly 20 years or so ago, the fuel companies began mixing 10 percent ethanol with gasoline as a way to improve the octane rating of the fuel to eliminate some of nasty chemicals like methyl-tertiary-butyl-ether (MTBE) which is a known carcinogen. Then, in 2010, the EP proposed increasing this percentage from 10 to 15 percent. There was an immediate back lash from several different sources and because I’m an automotive journalist – I was bombarded with a bunch of reasons why adding more ethanol was a bad idea.

Part of the reasoning didn’t make sense to me, but I bought into the idea that this additional ethanol was bad. What I should have done was to do my own research as opposed to just accepting was spoon fed to me. Essentially what was really happening was the oil companies didn’t like the idea of losing another 5 percent of sales to ethanol. So they created a massive propaganda machine that flooded everyone with all kinds of “facts” – most of which are not true.

I started to do my own research on this subject and it became clear there was a pretty serious agenda going on here. Even SEMA has bought into this, which I frankly don’t understand. I would think they would be in favor of a high octane fuel for high-performance engines – but SEMA chose to come out against ethanol.

I have since run across a website called fuelingthetruth.com that offers several videos concerning ethanol as a fuel and its advantages. In the vein of full disclosure, this website also has an agenda. But the information forwarded in the videos make some valid point. Based on this and other research, I began to formulate my own opinion about this fuel. Much of what we have been led to believe from the propaganda isn’t really the truth.

I suppose that even this column is essentially a sell job. But at least what I’m trying to get across is to not necessarily believe everything. In fact, it’s probably better to believe only about half of any of it. There’s a cliché in there somewhere that I’ll resist.

One of my daughter’s favorite lines from a movie is from Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts. The line is “I don’t know what I know, but I know that it’s big.” What becomes fun is digging deeper into a subject that interests you only to find that some of the information should more accurately be called sales pitches that often have very little to do with the actual truth.

Here’s an example. When the EPA proposed the move to E15, one of the criticisms was that this proposal would constitute a 50 percent increase in the amount of ethanol currently used. That sounds like a huge number – but they’re playing games with the numbers. While not false, the move from 10 to 15 percent is really only an addition of 5 percent – but it is a 50 percent increase from 10 percent. But if you’re not really paying attention, this kind of bad math becomes accepted fact.

Maybe I’ve just been around the block too many times – but I find myself still believing in some things.  The most important is that just about everybody has an agenda and if you pay attention, they’ll show you what they’re really after. Then it’s just a matter of paying the price.

About the author

Jeff Smith

Jeff Smith, a 35-year veteran of automotive journalism, comes to Power Automedia after serving as the senior technical editor at Car Craft magazine. An Iowa native, Smith served a variety of roles at Car Craft before moving to the senior editor role at Hot Rod and Chevy High Performance, and ultimately returning to Car Craft. An accomplished engine builder and technical expert, he will focus on the tech-heavy content that is the foundation of EngineLabs.
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