Driving a car in the 50’s meant eight cylinder engines and two types of gasoline ? leaded regular and premium ethyl. Very few of us back then needed to power our clunkers with ethyl so chipping in to fill the tank meant only .50 cents apiece for the four of us who used to pal around.
These days there is a myriad of choices for gasoline and with summer weather almost upon us there will be additional blends available to reduce pollution during the hot driving months. And of course our same party of four will now have to anti up a day’s pay to top off the tank!
The answer to all this madness we are told is to burn E85 gasoline in our combustion engines. We recently bought a new car with the words ‘Flex Fuel ? E85? prominently emblazoned on the trunk. For the entire world to see we are now environmental responsible people or so we thought.
Just try and locate a station that sells this new elixir called E85. It is estimated that there are approximately 1500 stations that handle E85 out of about 170,000 stations in the nation. Perhaps part of the reason for the paucity of locations is that it costs the station owners in the neighborhood of $200,000 to install an E85 pump.
Now I don’t profess to be an expert in the stoichiometric fuel ratio of E85, nor how this new automobile ‘go juice? is concocted. I do know that the cost at about $3.19 a gallon is relatively cheaper than the liquid gold we are currently purchasing at the pumps. But does the cheaper price offset the 20% to 25% reduction in mileage and efficiency? And if we were interested in sampling E85 the closest station to our home is 31 miles away! Perhaps when Wal-Mart and Sam’s gets on board there will be more availability but in the meantime one can only see pictures of these pumps in my owner’s manual!
And then of course there are some E85 naysayers who complain that the harvesting of corn for use in the refining process may be damaging the environment. Rising food prices have also been attributed to our quest for converting corn to E85. As the price of popping corn continues to rise will I have to switch to Cheetos? I hope not!
Frankly, I think it’s time to start exploring the oil fields in Alaska and other regions north. Yes, I am aware of the impact it might have on the prized caribou but how about hiring Dr. Doolitle to ‘talk to the animals? and impress upon them their obligation to our planet and its residents. And if gasoline were cheaper maybe on a regular basis we could drive to their habitat in the north and thank them personally!
In the meantime, should you see me driving, keep in mind that the ‘FlexFuel ? E85? emblem on the back of my car indicates that I am a responsible, environmental conscious, global warming awareness citizen of this nation. Yeah right!