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by Keith Ray.
Original Post: Cut Your Car Refueling Costs in Half
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According to what I've read here, Brazil lessened its dependency on foreign oil by converting, over the course of the last three decades, to gas-alcohol mixtures. Their "flex-fuel" cars and trucks can run on pure gasoline, pure alcohol or a mixture. Currently alcohol fuel in Brazil, made from local sugar-cane, is half the price of pure gas, and 40% of the vehicles are running on it.
Most American cars can run on mixture of up to 10% alcohol without modification. There are perhaps 5 million "flex-fuel" vehicles in the U.S. that can burn a mixture as high as 85 percent ethanol. Unfortunately few gas stations can handle "E85" fuel. Adding ethanol to gas has been called a ploy for farm-subsidies, but if the U.S.A committed to it, we could seriously reduce our fuel prices, reduce pollution, and reduce our dependance on foreign oil.
If we also gradually convert to hybrid gas-electric cars that can optionally be plugged in for recharging, we further reduce our dependance on oil. Eventually more electric power-plants would be needed for overnight recharging, but few or no power-plants depend on oil. New plants will be more efficient (and thus less polluting) than old ones, so this path will also lead to eventual reductions in pollution.
Getting better mileage is always a great topic unfortunately, E85 is not a viable solution. Mileage on E85 is typically less than that of gasoline for the same car. If E85 were to be sold at a much lower price than gasoline, it would be an easier sell. I found some great info on E85 at this site... http://e85.whipnet.net/yellow/mpg.html
The Ethanol E85 site I mentioned is growing by the day it seems... They have posted some additional articles on e85 including e85 station locations in Texas and other states.
http://e85.whipnet.net/locator Kroger and HEB stores are offering E85 at a lower price compared to regular unleaded gasoline. This might help encourage owners of FFV's (flexible fuel vehicles) to use E85. Every little bit helps!
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