'FLEX FUEL' SAVING DRIVERS MONEY
Thursday, July 21st, 2005 -- 9:40 AM
With the price of gas soaring over $2.35 per gallon, some people are experiencing relief in Stanley. The Stanley Travel Stop has been offering an ethanol/gasoline-blended fuel known as ?E85? for over a month now. E85 is 85% corn-based ethanol, 15% regular unleaded, and is running about 60-cents cheaper than regular unleaded. In fact, in Stanley, a gallon of regular unleaded is $2.38 per gallon; a gallon of E85 is only $1.82 per gallon.
Steve Miller manages the Stanley Travel Stop, he says certain vehicles are built to run on ?flex fuels?.
"There are severy ways people can find out," Miller explains, "If they open the gas cap, the cover has a label; otherwise on the inside of the door panel they can find out."
Miller says 1998-2003 Chrysler minivans are equipped to run on flex fuels and more and more domestically made vehicles have the technology.
Vehicles seem to perform virtually the same using E85, though drivers may see a slight decrease in gas mileage.
The Travel Stop trucks in regular unleaded fuel from their Shell distributor and then takes the fuel to the Ace Ethanol plant where it is blended. Therefore, E85 is helping the environment ? as it burns cleaner than regular fuels, and the local economy, all while reducing dependence on a foreign fuel sources.
"That just ties into the goal of that fuel: to make ourselves reliant on a domestic product and a domestic fuel source," Miller says. "This is a way a person can have a domestically-made vehicle and purchase fuel that's made here locally in the Chippewa Valley."
You may wonder why more vehicles aren?t equipped to run on E85? Miller says car manufacturers may have beat fuel distributors to the punch, but more and more states ? such as Iowa and Minnesota - are implementing minimum ethanol requirements.
As far as the future of flex fuels, Miller thinks it?s bright. The only real drawback is ethanol is somewhat dependent on the weather.
Ethanol-blended fuels are significantly less expensive as they are not taxed the same as regular petroleum-based products.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.