Is E85 Dead Now?

twdorris writes "With a stoichiometric ratio far lower than that of gasoline (much lower than the price difference), buying the E85 ethanol fuel blend instead of gasoline was already hard to justify. Unless you raced your car on a track where E85 provided a great alternative to race fuel, it really didn't make financial sense. And there are other reasons not to buy E85, too. Like the impact corn-based ethanol is having on food prices or the questionable emissions results (PDF). So, now that the ethanol subsidies provided by the U.S. federal government are scheduled to end this summer, it's going to be even harder to justify E85 (at least in the U.S.). This change will basically make a gallon of E85 cost the same or slightly more than gasoline. With so many things working against it, are the days numbered for readily available E85 at your local gas station? And should it have ever even been made available to begin with? How much did all that government-backed R&D and tax credits cost us for something that was pretty clearly questionable to begin with?"

Re:It has been known for quite a while.

[russotto]

Hard to figure why the government subsidizes it so much. I'm sure someone will say, is there a huge corn lobby? Who pays them?

The answer to the last question is easy: You do, and I do, and we all do. That's the great thing about rent-seeking, it's self-sustaining. You use your rent to obtain more rent.

And yes, there is a huge corn-products lobby, headed by the Archer Daniels Midland company (motto: "We're not quite as evil as Monsanto.").

Re:Deader Than a Doornail

[treeves]

So who bought the farm?
Ha ha.