Submission + - Is E85 dead now? (cars.com)
twdorris writes: "With a stoichiometric ratio far lower than that of gasoline (much lower than the price difference), buying E85 instead of gasoline was already hard to justify. Unless you raced your car on a track where E85 provided a GREAT alternative to race fuel, it really didn't make financial sense. And there are other reasons not to buy E85 too. Like the impact corn-based ethanol is having on food prices or the questionable emissions results (link to paper).
So now that the ethanol subsidies provided by the United States federal government are scheduled to end this summer, it's going to be even harder to justify E85 (at least in the US). This change will basically make a gallon of E85 cost the same or slightly more than gasoline.
With so many things working against it, are the days numbered for readily available E85 at your local gas station? And should it have ever even been made available to begin with? How much did all that government-backed R&D and tax credits cost us for something that was pretty clearly questionable to begin with?"
So now that the ethanol subsidies provided by the United States federal government are scheduled to end this summer, it's going to be even harder to justify E85 (at least in the US). This change will basically make a gallon of E85 cost the same or slightly more than gasoline.
With so many things working against it, are the days numbered for readily available E85 at your local gas station? And should it have ever even been made available to begin with? How much did all that government-backed R&D and tax credits cost us for something that was pretty clearly questionable to begin with?"
