Why We Don’t Need an Ethanol Mandate
The Post-Dispatch has a quick-hitter about a rebuilt gas station in Brentwood that is now offering E-85 gasoline. (I used to fill up at this station all the time when I lived in Brentwood Forest.) Because there is no mandate to sell E-85, the station owners have to include the reduced energy output of ethanol gas in their pricing. According to the story, they are selling it for 20 cents less per gallon.
This is how markets are supposed to work. Our new SUV (just doing my part to get the economy moving) is a flex fuel vehicle. I honestly didn’t think much about that when we bought it, I was much more concerned with making sure my wife and I had the ultimate set of rims. But if a station gives me enough of a price reduction on the E-85 gas, I will certainly consider buying it. This is the nature of capitalism: The government does not tell me what I have to buy; businesses give me a choice. Recent events have probably made people forget about that.
