When Flexfuel first became popular with the GM slogan "Live Green, Go Yellow" I was somewhat skeptical, but also encouraged by actual steps being taken to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. As time has progressed, I have seen how horribly wrong this is for our country.
My vehicle accepts E85, but I was skeptical, because when I got my truck - A 2007 Dodge Ram 4x4 - E85 was more expensive than unleaded gasoline. On top of that, E85 stations were few and far between. Fast forward to today, and gas prices are over four dollars per gallon as everyone knows. E85 stations are still few and far between, but are slowly gaining ground as the Flexfuel vehicles gain market share. I noticed that the station was selling gas for $4.09 and E85 for $3.59, so at a fifty cent savings, I thought I'd try it for one tank and if it performed adequately, then I would look for it more frequently.
I keep a good eye on my truck's mileage and know that I get roughly 17 miles per gallon - which is on par with that of the government tests. My E85 experiment was just under that of the government tests, with the tests at 12 miles per gallon, and my experiment at 11 miles per gallon - which at only one tank, I can't really guarantee is that accurate, but it is close enough to the government estimates for my purposes.
Doing some simple math, my 26 gallon tank, at $4.09 costs around $106 to fill up. E85, at $3.59 costs around $93. However when taking into account the mileage for each, I get an additional 150 miles or so per tank by using unleaded. Making this up would cost me nearly fifty dollars, which puts me worse off than saving thirteen on my initial fill up.
The problems of E85 are many, but farmers and auto-makers are shoving it down our throats because of the "green" bandwagon and the government subsidies. The funny thing however is that ethanol isn't really green if you take into consideration the production of it from start to finish. The corn being used for ethanol must be grown, fertilized, harvested and trucked to ethanol producers - all of which are fuel-using activities. All in all, it takes more than one gallon of fossil fuels - oil and natural gas - to produce one gallon of ethanol.
We haven't even touched on the effect this is having on food prices either. As farmers switch from their current crops to get the subsidies from corn, the prices of food have risen due to a smaller supply. Take into consideration that if every plot of corn in America was used for ethanol, it would reduce our dependence on foreign oil by a mere 10-12 percent. When you also consider that it takes 450 pounds of corn - enough to feed one person for a year - to fill up an SUV with E85, the "benefits" just aren't worth it.
America needs to reduce its dependence on foreign oil, but we need to take the appropriate steps to make this happen. Forcing ethanol down our throats will not magically make it the best alternative. If ethanol was truly the answer, the government would not be imposing a 54 cent tariff on Brazilian ethanol - which is derived from sugarcane, rather than corn, and is cleaner and more energy efficient. This is rather another case of lobbyists using their clout to get politicans to do their bidding.
A much better alternative in my mind is that of Coal Gasification. This idea of turning coal into gasoline was originally considered to be much too expensive - but that was when the price of a barrel of oil was around $20. It costs between forty and fifty dollars per barrel for Coal Gasification - which is a heck of a lot better than the $130 we are paying now for oil. Not only is Coal Gasification cheaper per barrel than that of foreign oil, but it is already being used exclusively by our military. If this option is good enough for our military, then it is good enough for the American people. Here's hoping that the politicians will make the correct decisions as the energy crisis continues, rather than throwing money at failed experiments.
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