Alcohol was the most popular fuel in the early 20th century. It was used to light city streets, prior to the availability of electricity.
All farms produced alcohol and there were alcohol stations everywhere. The Ford Model A ran on both alcohol and gasoline because alcohol was more available back then.
Historian, David Blume contends that Henry Ford believed alcohol to be the perfect fuel but in 1913, the grandaddy of the oil business, John D. Rockefeller gave $4+ million dollars (that was a LOT of money back then!) to the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement, to lobby Congress against alcoholism. In December of 1917, the 18th Amendement was proposed.
In 1920, “an all-male, hard-drinking Congress” passed not just a law – but an actual *Amendment* to the Constitution, preventing the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcohol for any use.
By the time this Amendment was struck down in 1933, Rockefeller had consolidated his position in the ownership of oilfields around the world and gasoline had become the de facto replacement fuel for the automotive industry, which was itself in its infancy.
That’s why we breathe toxic air and fight wars overseas that we shouldn’t be fighting.
To learn more about ethanol as a multi-purpose fuel, go to HempPermaculture.com
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