"Across government, the vast majority of E85 purchases made with government-issued credit cards don’t register as E85," FederalTimes.com reports. "One recent study suggests as much as two-thirds of E85 purchases are incorrectly recorded; another puts the figure at 82 percent." In other words, no one knows how much U.S. tax money is being spent on corn juice. In other other words, the feds are spending hundreds of millions of dollars propping-up the ethanol industry without a clue whether it's a waste of money or not (hint: it is). Yes, it's a major SNAFU. "To adjust for discrepancies in alternative fuel reporting, GSA [General Services Administration] in fiscal 2006 began reporting all fuel purchases for E85 vehicles governmentwide as E85 transactions when the cars went to stations that sell E85. But according to the November study… 45 percent of fuel purchases for E85 vehicles actually are gasoline rather than E85, meaning that GSA may be overestimating the amount of E85 purchased. "Our reports to Congress on alt fuels are suspect," says Marc McConahy of Vista Consultants, who studied the problem for two years for the Energy Department. "and I’m being kind when I say ‘suspect.'"
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Come on – with the gov’ts push for inefficient and wasteful E85 – ignorance is bliss. Why would they ever look onto themselves to determine if this is the right course of action.
US government [agencies] prop up all sorts of [american] companies and industries… – nothing new with them targeting E85 as well…
now if only they served ethanol that wasn’t corn based (in america)…
Who cares how much ethanol the government uses?
As far as propping up goes, is the money spent for gas or diesel propping up the terrorist supporting Arab oil exporters? I think so.
Better to prop up U.S. ethanol with hundreds of millions of dollars than hundreds of billions to prop up OPEC. Lets get our priorities straight. This country is for Americans, not foreigners.
Only about 24 percent avoid buying ethanol. About 50 percent say ethanol is okay with them. And about 26 percent don’t give a damn.
The majority still gets to set the rules, albeit with protections for the minority. Anti ethanol is in the minority an evidenced by acts of Congress. Get use to it.
97escort : Who cares how much ethanol the government uses? LOADS of people. The ethanol industry, for one. Congress, for another, who’ve mandated that federal agencies use corn-juice. And those people who believe that E85 production in this country raises food prices (25% of our corn crop goes to E85), negatively impacts our foreign policy (we care more about fueling vehicles than feeding the world) and wastes taxpayer money (.51 per gallon “blenders’ credit” and it’s STILL more expensive than E10), sucks-up precious water, etc. As far as propping up goes, is the money spent for gas or diesel propping up the terrorist supporting Arab oil exporters? I think so. I’m with you there. Yes, we should reduce our dependence on foreign-sourced oil. But that does NOT make E85 the best option. Nuclear power, domestic drilling, wind, solar, waves, coal shale– I can’t think of a WORSE alt fuel than corn-based E85. (And for those of you who say, hey, it’s a start towards non-corn based E85, why rush in where angels fear to tread?). Only about 24 percent avoid buying ethanol. About 50 percent say ethanol is okay with them. And about 26 percent don’t give a damn. What study are you quoting? And again, just because an ill-informed (not to say mislead cough O’Reilly cough) public believe in an E85 as a viable alt fuel (for them? for the environment?: to get us out of Iraq?) doesn’t make it sound public policy. The majority still gets to set the rules, albeit with protections for the minority. Anti ethanol is in the minority an evidenced by acts of Congress. Get use to it. The corn lobby bought and paid for that legislation. So be it. The general public is NOT buying or paying for E85 at the pumps. Democracy in action.
Hey Mr. Farago,
Do NOT want to start a major war here, but, aside wheat, there isn’t really any agricultural product the US can do better. Including Argentina the wheat thing is resolved. US farmers are no longer needed to feed the world. Brazilian farmers will do just fine, an at lower prices (bad for us, ’cause it’ll keep the perpetual misery mill rolling, though eventually it’d improve).
And as I’ve said before, I don’t believe in fuel from crops. Messes the food supply too much. But, in this case the Brazilian solution of sugarcane is much better than corn. Corn should be kept for food!!
Know what? Fidel is almost dead. America will soon have some very good acreage available for sugarcane. Hope your Congress doesn’t mess up the opportunity continuing the subsidies to corn.
Again, no disrespect intended.
Prius Hybrid boondoggle of the day…well, yesterday, on TopGear…
Prius M3 fuel economy
Also relevant (slight overlap)
TopGear fuel economy race, SLR, 599GTB, R8, Murciélago LP640, AM DBS
With billions of taxpayers dollars the government heavily subsidizes turning 30% of the countries corn into ethanol to replace a tiny percentage of the gasoline. Now these same taxpayers have the great luck to pay a huge increase in the price of food.
And the government in their infinite wisdom prevent the importing of ethanol and stop the drilling for and producing the huge quantities of oil offshore and in Alaska.
Then after all this government meddling the government blames evil ‘Big Oil’. Of course not mentioning the fact that the government taxes ‘Evil Big Oil’ to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, and the government makes more profit off a gallon of gasoline than ‘Evil Big Oil’. And a huge number of people believe the government Bolsheviks.
Who would be so foolish to believe drilling for and producing the vast quantities of offshore and Alaska oil will not decrease Americas dependance on foreign oil?
If they want to know when a government employee fills the tank with E85, all they need to do is look at the gas mileage. Any upward spikes indicate gasoline; conversely, downward plummets indicate gasahol.
Great, so you are telling me the government doesn’t know what their doing? LOL