With oil topping $135 a barrel, ethanol must be cheaper than gasoline, right? Not if you adjust for the fact that ethanol has about 30% less energy content than gasoline by volume.
The American Automobile Association monitors daily average national prices for gasoline and E-85, motor fuel blended with 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. When the ethanol fuel-economy penalty is taken into account, E-85 cost $4.704 a gallon compared to $4.486 for premium gasoline and $4.078 for regular gasoline. Here’s today’s chart from the AAA’s Web site:
| Regular | Mid | Premium | Diesel | E85 | **E85 MPG/BTU adjusted price |
| Current Avg. | $4.078 | $4.331 | $4.486 | $4.795 | $3.575 | $4.704 |
| Yesterday Avg. | $4.080 | $4.333 | $4.488 | $4.797 | $3.562 | $4.688 |
| Month Ago Avg. | $3.793 | $4.029 | $4.173 | $4.512 | $3.154 | $4.151 |
| Year Ago Avg. | $3.005 | $3.191 | $3.307 | $2.893 | NA | NA |
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What you ethanol nay-sayers forget is that Ethanol replaced MTBE, a cancer causing chemical that contaminated ground water. What does that cost?
I just tried my first tank of E-85. I have a FFV Tahoe,
but cannot get E-85 in Arkansas. I recently traveled to Dallas Tx which sels E-85 at Krogers for fifty cents less per gallon than regular. What a Deal I thought!!!
Heres the rest of the story. I have a mileage computer on my Tahoe that tells exactly what milage I am getting at any time. I traveled from Dallas to Hot Springs and used a full tank of fuel. My mileage with gasoline has been 18.5 MPG forever. With E-85 I achieved an underwhelming 12 MPG. What a disapointment. Reg was 3.86
per gallon while the ethanol was 3.36 per gallon. After doing the math, with gasoline , I find that I achieved 4.7 miles per dollar contrasted with only 3.5 miles per dollar with E-85. In order for E-85 to be financially feasable, it would have to sell for more than 1.00 less per gallon, and it still wouldn’t be that great of a deal.
There is a really simple solution to gas prices, and the major car companies are finally starting the ball rolling. The answer = Hydrogen on Demand. Ford, BMW, Honda, and More are already rolling these out, but wait who wants to spend another $21,000. I want to drive my hummer and my mustang. And now I can. I got a easy to install Hydrogen On Demand Fuel kit from PASS, check out their website, it installed in an hour, and was 1/3 the cost of other HHO hydrogen on demand systems. I now am getting 42% better gas mileage in my hummer, and 38% more MPG in my mustang. See thier website. http://www.passonfuel.com