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My F150 5.0 V8 is flex fuel, but I have never seen E85 at any gas stations around here. A quick check on GasBuddy shows that there are only 2, 20-30 miles away, and priced at $4.25 and $3.75. Not likely that I would ever use it at nearly a dollar or more per gallon over regular E15.
That price is crazy. When I had my flex fuel Tahoe, the math never quite worked out, but it was close. You'll get reduced fuel efficiency with E85 since it has less energy, probably 20-25% less MPG, so the price needs to be 20-25% less for you to not lose money....and it used to be about 10-15% less. With those prices for E85 being so much more, you'll really have to care quite a bit about reducing fossil fuel usage, because your costs for running the vehicle is significantly more.
One mor reason not to listen to the whims of the environmentalists. They cry for renewables and when you give it to them they complain about the price of tomatoes.
Another person that needs a civics lesson.
WHY do you think the Senators from the farm states vote for this?
My flex fuel vehicle runs zippier on corn squeezin's than it does on regular. The mileage on the highway is the same as for regular, as long as I use the speed control device as on a lightly traveled interstate. Those engine computers work very well as long as you don't pump that gas pedal like it's a church organ.
The down side is that almost all corn now grown is some universally useful hybrid somewhere between feed corn and eating corn. I've noticed that you have to boil store bought corn on the cob for 30 minutes to get the stuff edible. Used to cook up tender inside of 8 minutes whether boiled or m'waved. Not anymore.
Where do you buy your corn, New Mexico or something? It doesn't take 30 minutes, or even 8 minutes to boil corn, that's way too long, you're just gonna boil the flavor away. Sweet corn is not field corn, the two are different. Good sweet corn only stays really good for a couple days after it's picked. At some point, depending on temperature it's stored, after a few days the sugar turns to starch and when that happens the corn will be real "chewy" and bland tasting. I always buy my corn from someone selling fresh picked corn out of the back of a truck on a roadside stand. And I only eat it in late July thru September when in season. Otherwise I eat canned regular or cream style corn, preferably Del Monte or Green Giant. After I shuck my corn, sometimes I take a tiny nibble of it while it's raw to see if it tastes sweet, it should, if it don't, I take it back or throw it away. You only need to boil sweet corn for about 2 minutes after the water comes to a complete boil, anything more will boil away some of the flavor, or most of the flavor if you boil it for 20 or 30 minutes, lol. I prefer Blue Bonnet Lite margarine on mine, but suit yourself. My grandmother used to save bacon grease in a tupperware container and warm it back up for us, to roll our sweet corn in, it always had little bits of bacon in it too. Very tasty but not super healthy, lol.
My truck is a '97 so I won't be using any E15, but have been using E10 in it for the 18 years I've owned it, with no issues. My concern with ethanol is nitrate contamination of the Raccoon River, where Des Moines gets its drinking water from. It requires expensive equipment to get it out, and the levels have been increasing over the years, along with our water bill. Not a tremendous increase or anything but I would never eat any fish or drink any untreated well water from the state of Iowa. Others might, but I wouldn't recommend it. That's the down side. For every unit of energy needed to grow the corn, you get 1.5 units of energy back out of it. And the corn stalks are used for animal feed and other purposes. Sugar cane puts out 6 units of energy, but we can't grow much sugar in the US, but we can grow a lot of corn. So much, in fact, that without ethanol, a fair amount of land would not really be used in our short season climate for corn or soybeans because of overproduction, which would cause grain prices to tumble below the cost of production. They would probably switch 5% of the land use over for grazing, hay, alfalfa, and other less profitable crops. If it's not profitable, they won't grow it, and we can make way more corn than all the humans and animals can eat, but that drives grain prices into the toilet.
The key takeaway from that is the emissions. BARELY lower than gasoline.
Now, that article is 10 years old, so, I'm sure the gap may have decreased a touch from better tuning and better computer programs for E85.
why the love for ethanol? Well, because it can be made here and not bought from arab countries that we often have a love/hate relationship with. And, it is a renewable fuel. But it is far from perfect or any type of cure-all.
Now, talking about E10, which is most gas you get today. E-10 vs pure gasoline delivers about 3.3% less gas mileage. So, the places that I've seen, it's about a 50 cent per gallon difference. If E10 is 2.59 and ethanol free is 3.09.. that's about a 20% difference in price. Economically, it doesn't make sense to use ethanol free. However, as has been mentioned, there can be intangibles.. In Lawn mowers, older vehicles and things like that.. Ethanol free over the long run will save you money on repairs. Most lawn equipment made since 2000 is fine on E10, however. But.. I know lots of people who have the old 1972 Snapper still out there mowing their lawn.
What? Not true at all. Sweet corn is a type of corn. Field corn is a totally different type of corn. There is no mixing of the two, nor is there some universal hybrid.
Do you know what "hybridize" means? Do you know how long they've been hybridizing things? Corn is corn. Forget "type." You plant what will most likely get you the highest price with the least toil to the broadest market.
Came across a gas station today that has them all.
$2.12 for E85
$2.72 for E15 88
$2.85 for 87
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