what about the amount of corn it takes to make e85 and inturn causing the price of it to go up to the farmer who use it to raise livestock that we eat and will have to pay more for? what about the cows that eat the corn that we get milk from and the price of milk goes up?
Typical "Food vs Fuel" debate.
The price of corn has risen due to many factors. Ethanol is just one peice of the puzzle. I dont want to go over the entire world balance sheet on supply/demand for grain, but overall, world stocks were lower after last years harvest. Much of this was due to increase protein demand from China. Although they have not imported corn, (if they do, the price will skyrocket) they are not big exporters anymore. They are using more to feed livestock.
As far as prices "on the table" yep, pobably a little higher. Milk price is up, bread will be more expensive and all of it will be blamed on ethanol. A bushel of wheat can make 70 loaves of bread. Wheat price has doubled. The cost of raw wheat in a loaf of bread is about 10 cents. Bakers will raise the price to you and blame it on ethanol. I bet the price increase will be more than 10 cents.
It is amazing that when grain prices were cheap, and farmers relied on support prices, people complained about us getting handouts. Now prices are higher and they will complain about the cost of milk and the farmer getting rich while fueling up thier gas guzzlers. In your case, your big blocks. If you can afford them, then a little more for a gallon of milk wont hurt you.
. The reason I felt I could get away with 10-20% straight e-85 per fill-up is that it is only 85% ethanol and 15% gas. Regular gas MAY contain up to 10% but chances are they only blend 8% in the summer and 5% in the winter (cold start issues) Most if not all cars can take the 10% blend if not a little more, even up to 20%. Brad had a good point about the fuel lines. In '05, when gas hit $3.00 and e-85 was still $1.50, a farmer I know filled his on farm tank with e-85 and ran his full size, non e-85 chevy van on the stuff (late model). Anyways, he did end up having problems with his fuel lines and tank. Mostly seals. I also know that many of the Marine engine manufactures do not endorse any ethanol blends at all. I see signs in WI at gas stations near the lakes that say NO ETHANOL in our gas. On the flip side, there are many old farm trucks running around burning the stuff with no issues. We would use it more, but kind of hard to burn it in a duramax, also all of the equipment is diesel. We have had the clogging fuel line issues with bio-diesel, but once the filters are changed, they are good to go.
