Why I Drive E85

Why do I use higher blends of ethanol like E85? To protect my economic, environmental, energy and national securities. Using E85 in my FFV is what I can do today to help my country, my family, and myself protect my financial, consumer, and political freedoms.

I lower the price of gasoline by using ethanol blended fuels and/or using E85 in my FFV.

I am doing something today about my energy and national security by reducing gasoline use and the world’s reliance on crude oil from the Middle East.

I get 100+ miles per gallon of gasoline using E85, so I use less gasoline and more domestically produced alternative fuels.

I help reduce the price of food, protect food supplies, and save money on gasoline.

I help create jobs, stimulate the economy and lower taxes.

I lower the price of gasoline by using ethanol blended fuels and using E85 in my FFV.

Consumer empowerment is working! Studies show that the use of ethanol and E85 in FFVs has reduced the price of gasoline by 10 cents to 40 cents per gallon. Merrill Lynch says ethanol and E85 use has lowered gasoline and crude oil prices by 15%.

According to a new analysis by Merrill Lynch Commodity Strategist Francisco Blanch, “retail gasoline prices would be $21/bbl higher, on average, without the incremental biofuel supply.” This translates to a $526 a year savings on gasoline for the average family.

“…the billions of gallons of ethanol are moderating oil prices by "easing energy bottlenecks, Oil prices would be at least 15% higher than they are, if not for today's output of ethanol.” -- Francisco Blanch, head of global commodity research at Merrill Lynch.

Biofuels are playing "a critical role" in satisfying world demand. Without them, "it would be much more difficult to balance global oil markets," – Fatih Birol, chief economist of the Paris-based International Energy Agency.

I am doing something today about my energy and national security by reducing gasoline use and the world’s reliance on crude oil from the Middle East.

Not everyone can drive a Prius or afford a hybrid. Plug-in vehicles are being developed and hydrogen is many years away. Using E85 in my FFV is something I can do today that will have an immediate impact on reducing gasoline consumption and crude oil imports. Learn More

How drivers can make a global impact

Source Consumer Reports July 3, 2007, for oil imports: DOE Energy Information Administration, 2005 data

Fact Sheet - Gas Prices and Oil Consumption Would Increase Without Biofuels – U.S. Department of Energy, June 11, 2008,  

I get 100+ miles per gallon of gasoline (MPGG) using E85, so I use less gasoline and more domestically produced alternative fuels.

When using E85 in my FFV I can get 100+ MPGG (miles to the gallon of gasoline). After all, the challenge is about gallons per gasoline not only miles per gallon. For example. The 20 gallon fuel tank on my Dodge minivan takes 17 gallons of ethanol and 3 gallons of gasoline (E85). I normally average about 20 miles per gallon and go about 400 miles on that tank full. Even if I assume a 20% loss in mileage (truthfully I do not check or care, I just use E85 when I can) I go about 320 miles on those 3 gallons of gasoline or about 106 MPGG. Now that is progress and I have one of the highest miles per gallon of gasoline cars on the road!

I help reduce the price of food, protect food supplies, and save money on gasoline.

All things considered, if the U.S. stopped making ethanol – gasoline and oil would cost more, farmers would produce less, the government would have to pay them more of our tax dollars to stay in business to protect our food supplies, their land would be less valuable, so developers could by their land and build a house, and that home owner would be just a head of you in traffic, driving down the value of your house.

The price of crude oil has increased by 400% in the past few years and food prices have gone up 83%. Energy costs have by the biggest impact on food prices because farmers, shippers, food processors, truckers, and retailers all pay more for fuel – so they have to pass the buck to you. Reverse the trend; make the oil import buck stop with you! The Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture recently testified before Congress and said that 3% of the 45% increase in the price of food could be attributed to more demand for ethanol – that means the 96% of the price increase of food is from something else – yet I never hear anything about the cause of the 96%. According to some estimates the ethanol price increase in food is $15 per year and the savings in gasoline for a family is $500 to $1,000 per year – yet I don’t hear much about that either.

Merrill Lynch calculates that U.S. ethanol production has increased corn prices by just 21% since 2004. Because a very small portion of the price of corn is passed through to retail food items, this means ethanol has increased my household spending on retail food items by just $15 per year. According to a wide range of experts, skyrocketing oil prices, increased global demand for meat and grains from China and elsewhere, commodity speculators, the declining value of the dollar and droughts and bad weather account for approximately 80 percent of corn costs.

As detailed in my Clean Fuels Blog April 21, 2008

The Missing Link in the Food vs. Fuel Fight

The price of oil/gasoline has three times the impact on food prices compared to corn.

7.3 inputs of (primarily) fossil energy are consumed for every unit of food energy produced.

Therefore, if ethanol is lowering the price of gasoline consumers use to get to the store, and it is reducing the price of petroleum products farmers use to produce food, and it is reducing the cost of diesel that distributors rely on to get food to market, and it is reducing the cost of energy in the store -- then ethanol has to be lowering food prices. So why are food prices increasing?

Has ethanol contributed to the surge in my food prices? Not very much, concludes a group of agricultural economists at Texas A&M University in an April 10, 2008 report from the school's Agricultural & Food Policy Center. "The underlying force driving changes in the agricultural industry, along with the economy as a whole, is overall higher energy costs," the researchers conclude, not biofuels. Learn more

Get more facts on Food vs. Fuel

I help create jobs, stimulate the economy, and save government tax dollars.

Jobs are the key to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. The biofuels industry has already created nearly 250,000 jobs and saved many others. And the industry is just getting started. Jobs protect family unity and create stability. Jobs provide healthcare, childcare, savings accounts, retirement funds, housing starts and improve home prices. Biofuel use improves the trade balance and strengthens the dollar – and thus lowers the price of crude oil and gasoline – and therefore food prices. Learn More

Supporting capitalism and industry reduces the need for increasing my taxes. Because of ethanol production in the United States, the combination of increased GDP and higher household income generated an estimated $4.6 billion in tax revenue for the Federal government and nearly $3.6 billion of additional tax revenue for State and Local governments. It is estimated that the cost of the federal incentives for ethanol in 2007 totaled $3.4 billion. Consequently, the ethanol industry generated a surplus of $1.2 billion for the Federal treasury. I got a return on my tax dollar investment! That’s progress. Learn More

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View a video clip produced by "60 Minutes" about FFVs, E85 and ethanol.

The Ethanol Solution