A Good Year for the Outlaw

Many folks have purchased “flex fuel” vehicles in recent years, so they could use E85 – a viable alternative to regular or E10 fuel. The beauty in E85 is that it is always sold…or at least ALMOST always…cheaper than other fuels.

But to be really effective, E85 needs to be 20% or more less than the price of regular unleaded to pay off, as vehicles right now average 10-15% poorer gas mileage when running on the stuff.

So, when you see regular today at $2.50, to make it truly cost-efficient for a driver, E85 should be around $2.00 per gallon. That’s why it surprised me so much to see that a local (won’t say which local) E85 dealer, who had E85 priced at $2.59 when regular was $3.79, STILL has E85 at $2.59 even though his price for regular E10 has gone down to $2.49 today. Um, dude, that kinda takes away the incentive, eh?

His E85 should be about $1.99 right now. I’m wondering why it’s not. At another place I call “local” (won’t say where), E85 was a more reasonable $2.09 this morning, even though regular is way, way higher than the area average at $2.74 (I’ve called Lisa Madigan’s office on this, btw). In this case, E85 is certainly the bargain, although they’re gouging on the regular.

Bottom line: E85 should be around $2.00 right now. Hopefully, it will continue to drop – although reports from a greedy OPEC today suggest otherwise.

I have a bet with an employee over here that gas will be under $2.00 per gallon for E10 regular by the end of January (ie new president, one who doesn’t dry hump oil companies for a living). We made that bet the day it was $4.09 in Canton. I’m holding out hope.

But back to the point about E85…the LAST thing we fans of alternative fuels need right now is somebody gouging on the alternative. That needs to be fixed right away. Gotta go…another call to Madigan’s office is forthcoming.

EDIT: call made.