Diesel is about $4.75/gal here. Gas can be as low as $3.75/gal with various club card discounts, etc. Houston has some of the cheapest fuel in the US.
E85 Ethanol can be had for $3.50/gal on average, but only at a limited number of stations. The upside is that it burns cleaner and reduces dependence on foreign oil, while the downside is that it has less MPG than gas. Less enough where I think it's still overall cheaper to buy gas.
All of the gas here already has 10% Ethanol. Maybe if we increased that to 15%, maybe it would dent our gas usage just enough that the prices would fall. Our gas usage would fall 4.5% and even if we lose 1% of that to decreased MPG, it's over all a 3.5% drop in gas usage.
But I think a lot of people here are reducing gas usage anyway, at least in a small part just to save money. I heard METRO Bus rider-ship in Houston is up since the gas prices went up. What people do, is drive their car just a few miles to one of the parking lots they have set up all in the suburbs, and then take a bus to downtown to work. In the evening another bus takes them directly back to the same parking lot. The busses get to use the carpool lanes which also makes them faster. It costs $1 to ride each way but you were paying at least $4 each way for gas before so it's a cost savings, less pollution, a good deal overall.
E85 Ethanol can be had for $3.50/gal on average, but only at a limited number of stations. The upside is that it burns cleaner and reduces dependence on foreign oil, while the downside is that it has less MPG than gas. Less enough where I think it's still overall cheaper to buy gas.
All of the gas here already has 10% Ethanol. Maybe if we increased that to 15%, maybe it would dent our gas usage just enough that the prices would fall. Our gas usage would fall 4.5% and even if we lose 1% of that to decreased MPG, it's over all a 3.5% drop in gas usage.
But I think a lot of people here are reducing gas usage anyway, at least in a small part just to save money. I heard METRO Bus rider-ship in Houston is up since the gas prices went up. What people do, is drive their car just a few miles to one of the parking lots they have set up all in the suburbs, and then take a bus to downtown to work. In the evening another bus takes them directly back to the same parking lot. The busses get to use the carpool lanes which also makes them faster. It costs $1 to ride each way but you were paying at least $4 each way for gas before so it's a cost savings, less pollution, a good deal overall.