Wednesday, August 27, 2008
'Moonshine gas' isn't as good
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Jim Marchman
Marchman, of Blacksburg, is a professor emeritus at Virginia Tech.
As I drove home the other day I passed two gas stations that were having a price war of sorts, with very welcome lower prices than those found at other stations in town. Both stations posted the same price and both had an ample supply of customers at their pumps. Only one thing struck me as odd, and that was the patrons of one station were seemingly oblivious to the fact that, despite the equal posted prices at both establishments, their fuel was costing them more per mile than the gas from the other station's pump would have cost.
How can this be? If the price per gallon was the same at both stations, why is the fuel at one station more costly than that from the other?
The answer is found in the little white sticker on the pumps at one station but not on those at the other: a label that says, "this fuel may contain up to 10 percent ethanol."
A phenomenon previously seen mainly in the "corn belt" states, more and more gas pumps in Virginia are being plastered with these warning stickers. Once a rarity here, gas diluted with alcohol has become commonplace, and to my amazement, few seem to have noticed the change. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find a station that doesn't have a 10 percent adulterated fuel sticker on every pump, and the general public seems mostly unaware that they are getting robbed twice every time they fill up: once by the world's oil speculators and a second time by the moonshiners.
When you put 10 gallons of fuel into your car's tank you expect 10 gallons of gas but are getting the equivalent of only 9.6 gallons at a pump with that innocent looking 10 percent sticker. In reality you are getting 9 gallons of gasoline mixed with a gallon of alcohol, and that alcohol has only 60 percent of the energy of the gas. It's not even better for the environment because it puts out as much of the Sierra Club's least favorite pollutant, carbon dioxide, as real gas, and it actually produces more CO2 per mile because your mileage isn't as good.
If you are paying the same price for gasohol at one station as you would for real gasoline at another, you are getting ripped off since it has 4 percent less energy, i.e., 4 percent less gas mileage, as real gas.
If real gas is selling for $3.50 a gallon, the adulterated stuff should sell for no more than $3.36. Looked at another way, if one station is selling the moonshine/gas mix for $3.35, real gas at another station selling for anything less than $3.49 is a bargain.
The real tragedy in all this is that our government, in a move supported by both Republicans and Democrats, is subsidizing the folks who make these corn squeezin's to the tune of about $1 a gallon, and is requiring that more and more of it be used.
We are already seeing politicians of both parties trying to convince us that their type of drilling, either for oil or for geothermal energy, is the only answer to our energy needs. If we somehow find or use more American oil, we will become free of the wild speculation in the world market place, which appears to be more sensitive to hurricanes and government sword rattling than either the source of the crude or the laws of supply and demand.
Meanwhile Democrats and Republicans alike will continue to buy the votes of Midwest corn farmers and pay back the big donations from the richly subsidized ethanol producers by requiring ever-increasing quantities of corn liquor to be added to our gasoline.
Next time you hear a politician of either party blame the other party for high gas prices, ask if he voted to force us to pay even more by adding moonshine at the pump.
Next time you buy gas, make sure it's real gas. If you want to run your car on ethanol, make sure you pay only what its worth.
