Ethanol blues
In this smartmoney.com article, the author discusses ethanol in the end. It has some interesting points about how once the ethanol supply reaches it’s max, it won’t be able to replace even a percentage of all the gas America uses. Once this happens, it won’t be competatively priced against gasoline. In addition, even though it burns cleaner, the milage is worse.
What Gas Stations Won’t Tell You (10 Things: Personal Finance) | SmartMoney.com: “Cars run on gasoline — but not all cars need gasoline to run. In fact, 6 million cars on the road today (mostly from U.S. manufacturers and built since 1998) are ‘flexible fuel’ vehicles that can run on E85, a new fuel that is 85% ethanol and only 15% gas. Though E85 is currently available only at 710 stations, it’s expected to show up at 2,000 stations by the end of the year, thanks in part to state and federal tax credits.
When Minneapolis resident John Schafer bought a car in late 2001, he chose a Chevy Tahoe because it’s a flexible-fuel car. Since then he’s filled up almost exclusively with E85. The big difference he’s noticed: Cars using E85 get about 15% fewer miles to the gallon. But it’s a drawback he’s willing to put up with. ‘I’m committed to the technology,’ Schafer says. ‘With E85, it burns cleaner so it won’t pollute as much.’
While E85 generally costs less than regular gas, there is some concern that it may grow prohibitively expensive this summer, when demand is predicted to outpace supply: This year ethanol will be used not only in E85, but it will also compose 15% of every gallon of gas sold. Supplies of ethanol are likely to grow thin, which could drive up the prices of both normal gasoline and E85. And even die-hard Schafer says he won’t buy E85 if it starts to cost more than gasoline.”