E85 Is Wasting Taxpayer's Money

From Grainnet:

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) Dec. 18 announced that Iowa consumers have four new locations to fuel up with homegrown E85 – Harlan, West Point, Dunlap and Grinnell. Iowa now has 55 stations offering E85.

All four stations received funding through the Iowa Values Fund Renewable Fuels Infrastructure Program, which is managed by the IRFA, to install the E85 equipment.

A total of $325,000 per year was allocated to help expand the availability of both E85 and biodiesel.

Entities wishing to install E85 or biodiesel retailing sites or biodiesel blending terminals can now apply for grants through a new $13 million Iowa Department of Economic Development infrastructure program.

That's $13 million down a rathole.

There are 980 people living in West Point, and just over 1100 in Dunlap. How many E85-compatible cars do you think are in those areas? Maybe a handful? And how many of those people are going to be long-term customers of the heavily-subsidized hooch? Probably not many.

I can't imagine that there would be many customers in Harlan (pop. 5200). Maybe a few in Grinnell (pop. 9100). Certainly not enough to justify the millions of dollars wasted on E85 pumps.

According to the prices reported in this E85 forum, it's not even worth putting a tankful in your car thanks to the 25% to 30% decrease in mileage performance.