I have a hard time believing the farmer or rancher is going to come out successful in the long run, and it’s obvious the consumer is getting robbed. So who’s making money? Simple: the people collecting the government subsidies on ethanol blended fuels.
In ND, E85 can contain as little as 70% ethanol. Check the text on that orange button on the E85 pump. That means an E85 producer can hedge 15% of the ethanol in the fuel he makes and collect a 50 cent per gallon subsidy on 15% more product! What a racket, eh?
Why do you suppose they give it 15% leeway? Perhaps it’s because the ethanol evaporates and/or absorbs water. That’s why they can’t transport it using pipelines. So if it will absorb water in a pipeline, what do you suppose it’s going to do in the underground tanks at the gas stations?
What about putting a hygroscopic fuel in your gas tank? Do you feel like replacing a $500 fuel pump in your General Motors Flexfuel vehicle every winter when the water absorbed by the ethanol freezes up and takes out the impellers of your fuel pump? Since 1995, GM has integrated the fuel pump with the gas gauge sending unit in its vehicles. Trust me, I had to replace one. I couldn’t believe the $670 bill! Look forward to more of those if you’re going to start making ethanol ice cubes in your gas tank.
Let’s not forget that E85 is a thermodynamic loser as well. That means you get less energy out of gallon of E85 compared to a gallon of gasolene. Simply put: your car doesn’t have much power, your mileage goes down, and you save ZERO in the long run. But you get to feel better (until you crunch the numbers) and some fatcat gets to collect a government subsidy. E85 is a joke, plain and simple. Anyone who tells you otherwise has a purely financial interest in doing so.