Saturday I was involved in a discussion with a couple of friends from church regarding the price of gas. In recent weeks it has fallen significantly. I mentioned that the day before I bought E85 fuel at $1.899 per gallon. So the question was asked as to whether I actually save money using E85. One of the considerations was the cost of vehicles that can use E85. In my case I didn’t take into consideration whether or not the car was Flex-Fuel when I bought it. It was a used car that met our needs and we were able to negotiate it into our price range. We later found out it was Flex-Fuel, so for us the cost of the car was irrelevent.
So the major issue in terms of economy is the decreased milage we get with E85. On regular unleaded gasoline we get about 28mpg. With E85 we get about 24mpg. On the day I spent $1.899 regular unleaded was $2.859. Let’s do the math to find out cost per mile. 2.859/28=$0.102 and 1.899/24=$0.079 so I save about 20% on the cost of fuel when I use E85 (your milage my vary).
There are other issues to consider. It is not very often the the difference in the 2 fuels will be about 30% as it was on this day. If the price difference is significantly less it may be no cost benefit. The price varies with the availability of the raw produce whether it be corn, sorghum, switchgrass, or whatever the crop of choice is. But I would rather be supporting our US farm economy than to be sending our nation’s wealth (as it is) to nations that have little or no respect for America.
Some will argue that by using our corn for fuel we take food out of the mouths of starving children because we won’t have the surplus. But by making corn and other crops more of a commodity, fewer of our nation’s farmers will be going bankrupt. Bankrupt and former farmers produce fewer crops, thus causing the surplus to dwindle. Save the farmers, save the children of the world. Balance is the key.
God bless the farmers. God bless the scientists and engineers that can develop alternate fuel technologies. God bless the USA.
Tracy Henness
