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On 3 Apr 2006 at 22:25, Russ Wolfe wrote: > Here in the midwest, Iowa anyway, E85 is the cheapest fuel. Less state > roaduse tax on it. Even 10% ethanol is $.10 a gallon cheaper. The state > gives a break for renewable fuels, and "I think" E85 is almost $1 > cheaper. I think the dollar savings are just in taxes. The politicians have given tax breaks on this to help the farmers make ends meet. I have nothing against helping farmers, but right now it's not clear whether it takes more or less than 1 gallon of gas to produce one gallon (energy equivalent) of ethanol. There's actually a danger here that people might drive their E85 cars and think that they were saving gas by doing so, but if the farmers were burning just as much (or nearly as much, or a little more) gas to produce the ethanol, then there's no real savings. The debate goes on as to whether it is actually energetically advantgeous to produce and use ethanol fuel, but the fact that it's too close to call means that there's little advantage to be had. Maybe someone will come up with a tech breakthru so we could make a gallon of ethanol using only 1/2 or 1/4 gallon of gas. In that case, it would become truly economical. That would be a REAL breakthru, however, and it might well take the farmers out of the loop. -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~