I get irritated every time I go to the pump this time of year when I see the sign on the pump “10 percent ethanol”. Initially I don’t have to see the sign to note that Gasohol has arrived because I notice that my mileage per gallon has diminished by watching the gas gauge and have to strategize more frequently about where and when to stop to fill up. I’m too time-strapped to find a way to go to the pump in Massachusetts which is out of the way for me unless I just happen to be there at the right time.
I have a modest Ford Focus to conserve gasoline usage so my annoyance stems from seeing my mpg drop from about 31-32 mpg to about 26-27 mpg. Let’s say that my mpg drops by 14.5%. This means that I have to fill up every 4+ days rather than every 5+ days. We are not reducing dependence of petrol because replacing 10% of the gasoline with ethanol which does not account for the 14.5% reduction in miles per gallon. The other problem is that we are not getting a 14.5 % reduction in price – in fact the price has gone up.
What was the EPA drinking when they dreamed this up? Probably not Kool-Aid.
The data below does not match my experience with gasohol. My experience is that I am using more fossil fuel because of the lower efficiency of gasohol. The noxious components produced assumes that we are all getting equal mpg with gasohol versus regular gas; but it sure looks like they are using HUMVEEs to come up with this result.
