Quote:
Originally posted by legion
When gas was $3.15, E85 was $0.50 cheaper. That's 84% of the price for 73% of the gas-mileage--so that's still a loser.
Now, gas is $2.35 a gallon and E85 is $2.30 a gallon. That's 98% of the price for 73% of the gas-mileage--an even bigger loser.
ADM is headquartered exactly 40 miles south of me. Nearly every station in town sells E85. This is probably the densest market for E85 in the country.
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It's actually much worse than that. There are two hidden costs of ethanol. First, more petroleum is consumed in the manufacture of ethanol than it replaces; and two, it is tax subsidized in order to make it price competitive at the pump.
It is in fact way more expensive to use than petroleum fuel.
Edit: I just remembered two additional things. One, we don't need an alternative fuel source, since the globe is awash in oil right now. And second, since the new discovery of a huge oil field in the Gulf of Mexico will more than supply America with any deficit in oil created by a total cutoff of supply from the mideast, we simply should stop all government effort to force ethanol on us, and then stop all government funded research in alternative petroleum sources as well. Private industry will meet the need without the government interference with and in the market.