E85 on its way out???

[Ordakow]

I work in the auto industry mainly on fuel systems and have noticed roughly 90% of 2014 model year E85 vehicle platforms are being canceled. It seems the government is not giving the OEM's credits anymore for using E85. Some of you already know this but the FF or Flex fuel vehicles fuel system cost more then the E10 systems. I am sure it wont go away but I bet we are reaching the peak of E85 pump locations. :cryying::cryying::cryying:

 

[Drazga]

I hope they don't get rid of the few in my area.

 

[InvisibleBlade]

I don't really care about any of the new vehicles, but I hope they at least keep the pumps they already have since I plan on going E85 in the Cobra next year.

 

[TEAL 93 SVT]

I don't really care about any of the new vehicles, but I hope they at least keep the pumps they already have since I plan on going E85 in the Cobra next year.

Werd. Thankfully there are a few around the cities here.
Good looking car man, ever come over the MN to play during the summer?

 

[Silver03Termi]

The infrastructure to produce it is already in place. They will continue to make it, and it will get cheaper in the future.

 

[Drazga]

The infrastructure to produce it is already in place. They will continue to make it, and it will get cheaper in the future.

Care to explain? It was around 2.35 here before and now its around $3. It would be great if it went back down to that the way I'll be burning through it.

 

[InvisibleBlade]

Werd. Thankfully there are a few around the cities here.
Good looking car man, ever come over the MN to play during the summer?

Thanks. Only to head to the tuner @ DB Performance. Wish I would spend some time up there though to play around... some fast are roaming around for sure.

But back to the topic, I would assume they would continue such as Silver03Termi said. It's about $3.11 here, so I can live with it, but cheaper is always better haha.

 

[Silver03Termi]

Care to explain? It was around 2.35 here before and now its around $3. It would be great if it went back down to that the way I'll be burning through it.

The factories are already built. Too much money has been spent on them to abandon flex fuels. Just because the government quit subsidizing it, doesn't mean that it is coming to an end. There is a future for e85. Corn is only one way to make it. There are other ways to make it with algae that can increase the yield 6-10 times, per acre. As technology advances, this fuel will become cheaper.

 

[04sleeper]

Seeing as how ALL gasoline is expected to go from E10 to E15, I don't think you will be seeing any Ethanol going away any time soon.

As for the tax credit, it is shown it won't really affect too much.

Here's an article from yesterday. :read:
Corn ethanol will survive subsidy loss, CEO says | StarTribune.com

 

[Ordakow]

Seeing as how ALL gasoline is expected to go from E10 to E15, I don't think you will be seeing any Ethanol going away any time soon.

As for the tax credit, it is shown it won't really affect too much.

Here's an article from yesterday. :read:
Corn ethanol will survive subsidy loss, CEO says | StarTribune.com

I agree on the E15 coming down the pipe line but E85 usuage is already being affected on future programs. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up.

 

[oldmodman]

I hope it does continue to expand it's pumping locations.

I'm in California and would love to burn it. Otherwise I am stuck at 16psi due to our crappy 91 octane gas.

 

[Ortiz99]

I got this today.


Thank you for contacting me regarding ethanol subsidies. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

The use of ethanol in gasoline has increased substantially over the past decade in Texas and across our country. Roughly one-quarter of all corn grown in the United States is now used to produce ethanol. Although this increased use of ethanol in gasoline has the potential to reduce importation of foreign oil, it has clearly inflated the price of corn and of many other foods.

The federal subsidies for the use of domestically-grown corn in gasoline are very large. The U.S. currently assesses a 54 cent-per-gallon tariff on ethanol imports. In addition, there is a 45 cents-per-gallon federal excise tax credit for blending ethanol into gasoline.

Although the ethanol tariff and excise tax credit were both extended by Congress and the White House through 2011, concerns about the costs of federal subsidies ($6 billion per year) and the ethanol tax credit's effects on food prices have grown. On June 16, 2011, I voted with 72 other Senators to cut these subsidies through Senator Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) and Senator Tom Coburn's (R-OK) amendment to S. 782, the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011. In order to become law, the ethanol subsidy cuts must next be passed by the House of Representatives and signed by President Barack Obama.

I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope that you will not hesitate to contact me on any issue that is important to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator

 

[50 Deep]

That sounds less than promising......

 

[RDJ]

Not a big fan of Kay Bailey but she got this one right

 

[Bud]

Get rid of the ethanol subsidies and the 54cent tariff both, let other producing countries of ethanol compete fairly in our market. If e85 is a viable alternative fuel it will stand on it's own without the whole countries tax dollars subsidizing it and without us being protectionist when it comes to US produced ethanol, farmers, etc. I believe if we got rid of both the subsidy and tariff e85 would still survive here and prices would not rise.

 

[Lstruck03]

I fired off an email to the petroleum director for stripes (the one local e85 station) and here is his reply:

"Thank you for contacting us and for being a loyal Stripes customer. Regarding E85, the driving factor behind this product today is the fact that Retailers such as Stripes can offer this product at a substantial discount to conventional motor fuel as a result of the Federal subsidy of Ethanol. Unfortunately, this subsidy is set to expire at the end of this year and it currently appears that it will not be renewed.

Without this Federal pricing assistance, the cost to the Retailer of E85 is at parity, or even above, conventional fuel. Since we have not had a time where Ethanol based fuel has been priced at, or above, regular gasoline, there is great trepidation on our part to aggressively roll out additional E85 stations since there is also a considerable additional cost for the equipment capable of handling this particular grade of fuel.

That having been said, Stripes constructs every new store (including your new store on 34th) with the underground components needed should E85 (or any other alternative fuel) become a viable option in the future. We would simply need to replace and / or retrofit our above ground equipment, make the connections and we could be in the alternative fuels business in short order.

Long answer to your short question – we have no plans to include E85 in the new stores that we are currently building, however, should future economics warrant, we do have plans to retrofit any new store built this year and beyond. Thank you again for contacting us, please let us know if we can assist you in any other matters.

Craig Scotton
Stripes
Sr. Director Petroleum Services
361-688-6103 Cell
361-693-8899 Office"

 

[SID297]

The expansion of E85 will likely slow. It would be nice to get moving quicker on cellulose based ethanol.

 

[oldmodman]

The expansion of E85 will likely slow. It would be nice to get moving quicker on cellulose based ethanol.

Absolutely.

Quit using corn and get busy on developing a saw grass infrastructure.

Or some other non food based source. I hear a lot of talk about algae. Is it a viable replacement?

 

[SVTDice]

Yes, Algae could very much be a good replacement, The only problem with it is that it takes alot of water. But Per Acre. It will produce more Ethanol then current Corn. As far as I know.

 

[97markja]

Sugarcane is where its at from a production stand point, the crops can be turned at 4x the rate and the yield is much higher.
Brazil started in the 70s.