I have posted a couple of times before about the Oil Industry (here, here, here), and commented at various blogs about why gasoline substitutes are not the panacea for our energy woes. In short the energy to mass ratio is not high enough for most substitutes to be an efficient alternative.
In this months Consumer Reports my point of view is validated. The Consumer Reports staff tested a flex fuel Chevy Tahoe and found:
- The fuel economy of the Tahoe dropped 27 percent when running on E85 compared with gasoline, from an already low 14 mpg overall to 10 mpg (rounded to the nearest mpg). This is the lowest fuel mileage we’ve gotten from any vehicle in recent years.
- With the retail pump price of E85 averaging $2.91 per gallon in August, according to the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks petroleum and other fuel prices, a 27 percent fuel-economy penalty means drivers would have paid an average of $3.99 for the energy equivalent of a gallon of gasoline.
- When we calculated the Tahoe’s driving range, we found that it decreased to about 300 miles on a full tank of E85 compared with about 440 on gasoline. So you have to fill up more often with E85.
In addition Consumer Reports found:
- Decreased emissions of Nitrogen Oxide, a smog producer. This should be a good thing except decreased smog means decreased global dimming which means increased global warming. (that was semi-facetious)
- Increased Emissions of Acetaldehyde, a potential carcinogen. Bad thing.
The rest of the report covers whether or not the actual production of Ethanol is economically viable for the US. That is open for interpretation but my take is not currently but it could be.
tags: Economics, Petroleum, Oil, Gas+Prices, Ethanol.+Flex+Fuel
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