For the price per gallon, the alledged ' decrease ' in milage is more then madeup in ' cost per mile of operation '.

 

Its ' Junk '. Still hating it eh?

http://hybrids.autoblog.com/2005/08/...ected-results/

( Read the links folks , its an OLD article ).

"Why didn?t the mileage drop off consistently for each vehicle? Ethanol is both an oxygenate and an octane booster. That means that they may be able to improve power - depending on the ECM calibration - and offset the expected loss from having less energy. I wish the test would have included logging of the Impala?s timing and knock retard during the test, as the vehicle may have been able to run more advance with the higher blends of ethanol. The Toyota may not have been programmed to take advantage of the greater knock resistance of the ethanol, or the combustion chamber may be efficient enough to not make additional power with more spark advance. More data here would be nice."

Proper Tuning of an ECM will make up for the lost milage. Presently I see the same or better milage on E85. TYhen again, I have a laptop and the software to do such.

E85 was 2.31$ per gallon out of my pocket today. 87 was sitting around $2.80-3.00ish depending where one would go ( I went to the reservation as I needed smokes ). The E85 was TAXED by Elliot Spitzer before it went to the Rez as well.

To be fair, that article has a link to this :

"A study released from University of California-Berkeley finds that for every unit of energy yielded by ethanol, it takes 1.3 units to produce it from corn, and is nearly 3 times more expensive than gasoline per unit energy delivered. The study didn't take into account the $3B in federal and state subsidies that are given out to ethanol producers every year, which means that the true cost of ethanol is likely even higher. Ethanol is widely used as a fuel additive across the country, and in some areas can be found as a blend where it's the primary source of energy (so-called E85 is comprised of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, and must be used only in vehicles designed for it). Since ethanol can be made from corn or other sources of biomass, it's attracting much attention as a source of renewable energy."

Regardless, no Arab sees a dime from my wallet.

Heres a ' Net Effect ' of building all these Ethanol refineries..

According to Dr. Van Dyne, "The two ethanol plants in north Missouri have added significant direct benefits to Missouri, with the Macon plant adding almost $14 million and the Craig plant adding slightly over $10 million this past year. The direct and indirect impacts of the two plants, each producing 22 million gallons of ethanol annually, have major positive impacts on the north Missouri economies, including: process and add value to almost 16 million bushels of corn annually, 1,815 additional jobs, $172.8 million increase in total output, and tax revenues of $17.7 million."

Local Jobs. Subsadise for ' Farm-aid ' are being put to use. Instead of tax dollars subsadising Farmers to not grow anything, your tax dollars are being put to use to actually have something grown.

Heres a more recent study :

http://www.ncga.com/public_policy/PD...hanolStudy.pdf

.. and another..

http://www.livescience.com/environme...ol_better.html


As time moves on, and more efficient processes of bringing Ethanol to the pump come about ( their competing against a monopoly with 120+ years of subsadies and market dominance after all.. ) , people are going to start enjoying the fact we need not becomed involved in the worlds affairs as much as we go down the road to being Self Sufficient.

To the original author :

You also have the means for a tax credit for your purchase of a Dual-Fuel Vehical. I know one member here recieved a 1500$/year credit for a year, I do NOT know if its an annual thing or not but its something to look into.

 

Some are, some aren't. Look for that ' Corn ' badge on your tailgate. If its not there, read your owners manual and make sure.