BTW, I was in South Dakota a couple of years ago and noticed they had “flex fuel” gas (very high alcohol content) for well over a dollar less than regular. I did some math regarding the energy content of alcohol vs gasoline and the percentage of alcohol in the fuel and determined it was still cheaper to buy the “expensive” gasoline because of the significantly better mpg I could expect.
And if this subsidy goes away, I have a feeling flex-fuel will too, unless people will really be willing to pay more for significantly less energy.
All in all, this is a VERY good development.
Yes but there should be a way to phase out the law with provisions or mandates that specify increased domestic oil production coming on line for each ethanol plant that closes. We don’t want to just increase percentage f foreign oil !
While alcohol has a lower energy content than gasoline, a higher percentage of the energy is extracted during the combustion process. In the end, you still get less energy out of ethanol, but not by as much as it would seem if you only compare energy contained, not energy released.