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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Corn Squeezin's Economics

The Empress and myself just purchased a new vehicle. It is a flex-fuel vehicle and I am learning about corn squeezings aka E85.

Of course, it is not widely available. I also tell you 60-70 cents per gallon under regular fuel really gets your attention. However, I also notice a significant drop in mileage when running on corn squeezings. With the new years I am going to track the mileage very closely to determine the cents per mile. My guess the cents per mile will be close to a wash with perhaps a slight edge to corn squeezings.

Being that corn squeezings are not widely available another phenomena I see is wide variance in the price. For example, at the Corner of HWY 10 & South Oneida in Appleton (or is that Menasha there?) just across from Waverly Beach is a Kwik Trip (used to be a Shell Station) that sells corn squeezings. Then we have a Renew Station on Wisconsin Avenue on the West side of town (near Indian Darbar restaurant), the Renew Station sells E85, E20, and E10 corn squeezings.

The difference in price between the Renew and the Kwik Trip is significant, I don't know what it is now, but I remember seeing a 30 cent difference once.

E85 is new, the sources are few. This means knowledge of the marketplace is much more limited. I am driving to Menasha from Manitowoc there is no way I am going to know about the cheap E85 at the Renew station. Even for people who live in the area there is a good chance they will not know the large difference in price.

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