e85

Gas vs. Ethanol

While it’s true that on a gallon-to-gallon basis ethanol historically has been cheaper than gasoline, ethanol contains far less energy than gasoline and therefore has cost consumers more to travel the same distance.[read more]

Carolina K. Smith MD / Shutterstock.com

Despite an aggressive push with promotions and massive state investment, and more stations offering E85 for sale in Minnesota now than a few years ago, significantly less of it is being bought by consumers.[read more]

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The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) has been circulating a video titled “40 Facts about Ethanol.” Unfortunately, this list of “facts” that couldn’t be further from factual.[read more]

Renewable Fuels Assoc.

There is nothing simple about boosting E85 sales, which are low and projected to continue to be low. This is for several reasons; first and foremost is weak consumer demand for vehicles that use E85.[read more]

The basic math is pretty simple: most gasoline in the U.S. has about 10 percent ethanol, so the the 45 cents/gallon VEETC subsidy reduced the price of gasoline about 4.5 cents. The subsidy expired at the end of 2011, so one reason gasoline prices have gone up a few cents since New Year’s Day comes from the loss of the subsidy. (World...[read more]

Alas, today I had intended to put up my book review of Amanda Little’s book Power Trip, but I left the book on my desk in the office and I need to review some notes first. So that should be posted for my Thursday column. If you haven’t noticed, I have fallen into a pattern of putting up a new column each Monday and Thursday. Because...[read more]

The current tax credit for blending grain ethanol into gasoline, the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC), has outlived its usefulness. That's not just because I consider it unwise to subsidize any industry to such a generous extent for more than thirty years, but also because the passage of the ambitious federal Renewable Fuels...[read more]

I was very interested to read that Valero, the largest independent refiner in the US, is designing its new gas stations to offer a much wider variety of energy products, including natural gas, E85 ethanol, and potentially recharging facilities for electric vehicles. This is an announcement I've been expecting for more than ten years, and...[read more]

Join the forum discussion on this post  Problem? What Problem? Following my recent post What You Aren’t Being Told About Ethanol and Corrosion, someone made a comment that gets to the root of why many ethanol proponents mistakenly see me as an enemy of ethanol (indeed, one of the Top 10). The person said that if there are problems...[read more]

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) today announced that E85 sales in Iowa reached an all-time high in 2010. According to the Iowa Department of Revenue, sales of E85 by Iowa retailers reached 9,311,908 gallons last year representing a 43% increase over 2009 sales. “E85 has been a great success for Iowa consumers and retailers...[read more]

The previous essay spoke of the selfishness of many of today’s political leaders in spending tax dollars for votes, while compromising the economic opportunities for the next generation. In this essay, I want to focus on the selfishness of a particular group: Ethanol special interests, who have succeeded in gouging taxpayers for another...[read more]

By now you may have seen some prototypes of the new-car fuel economy stickers on which the EPA is seeking public comment. The versions that prominently display letter grades for overall fuel economy performance are certainly eye-catching, rising above the potentially confusing mix of numbers and graphics in the body of the sticker. Yet...[read more]

In my recent post Thoughts on an Ethanol Pipeline, I described what I feel would be a more rational approach to ethanol policy than some of the policies that have been pursued over the years. This gist is that the Midwest currently produces about 95% of the ethanol in the U.S. (12.5 billion gallons), but they export 70% of that ethanol...[read more]

The number of stations across the country selling E85 topped 1600 for the first time in June, reaching 1627 by months end. For the month 48 new location were added. July 1, 2008 - 1627 June 1, 2008 - 1579 May 1, 2008 - 1560 April 1, 2008 - 1521 March 1, 2008 - 1501 February 1, 2008 - 1475 November 9, 2007 - 1378 May 7, 2007 - 1200 The...[read more]