Group claims ethanol saves 12 cents a gallon

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Twelve cents a U.S. gallon. That's how much the Renewable Fuels Association of Washington, D.C., figured 10 per cent ethanol/90 per cent gasoline blends were keeping off the price of a gallon of fuel in late April. The American Automobile Association had pegged gasoline that week as costing US$3.88 per gallon. The Renewable Fuels Association figures that, without ethanol in the mix, gas would cost a nice round US$4.

That's an annual savings of more than $100 for an average American household consuming about 900 gallons annually. And E15 (15 per cent ethanol) would save 19 cents off regular unleaded.

The renewable fuel group's claim is one side of a war of words in the United States. The government pays refiners 45 cents for every gallon of ethanol they blend with gasoline, costing American taxpayers US$6 billion a year. A group of Democratic and Republican senators wants the subsidy to end, along with a 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on imports. BF