Western Courier

Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Adam Sacasa Junior RPTA major, Megan Yockey, fills up her SUV Thursday afternoon at Cenex gas station.

With gas prices skyrocketing, ethanol, along with other alternative energy sources, is becoming more popular. Seeing it as a way to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and help the environment, gas stations across the U.S. have jumped on the "green" bandwagon. With the many benefits of ethanol, issues also arise with the alternative fuel source.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, ethanol is a grain alcohol extracted from corn as well as other starch products like sugar beets and cane. This alcohol can be mixed with gasoline and provide a cleaner-burning fuel. The E-85 blend can be found at select gas stations. This fuel mixture contains 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline and can only be used by specially designed flex-fuel vehicles.

For all other cars, blends like E-10 can be used. These blends contain only 10 percent ethanol. According to the American Coalition for Ethanol, this mixture can decrease fuel costs, increase the fuel's octane rating and decrease the pollution given off by cars. With all these benefits and gas prices reaching record highs, why isn't ethanol more popular?

Although the U.S. Department of Energy states that ethanol blends have little impact on engines over unleaded gasoline, some consumers still worry the ethanol blend might damage their cars, according to Ayerco Gas station attendant Irwin Gooden.

"They say the ethanol causes it to gum up," he said.

Even so, many customers at the gas station in Macomb continue to use the blend.

"Sales are good" Gooden said. "The ethanol is cheaper than the unleaded and unleaded is 2 cents higher."

As ethanol is an extract from corn, farmers can benefit from the higher prices that result from the growing demand of the new fuel source.

"The ethanol plants, at least in Illinois, are frequently cooperatively owned by farmers so they have a vital interest in the success in the ethanol industry" said Western Illinois University agriculture department chair and professor William C. Bailey.

Although it helps increase farmers' profits in America's struggling agriculture system, the cost can be transferred to consumers not at the pump, but at the grocery store. In addition to subsidies, limiting ethanol imports from overseas, $100 barrels of oil and record-high gas prices have all helped increase the attractiveness of ethanol to farmers, according to Bailey.

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