We thought that with the departure of The Almighty Alcalde to make "real money," the city's Eco-Fuel Follies would end. Not so fast! Four months into the new administration and the city is still pumping the feel-good fuel.
E85 is a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% good ol' unleaded. The mixture burns cleaner than its fossil fuel equivalent, but there are a number of drawbacks.
First off, a vehicle burning the moonshine fuel gets about 30% lower gas mileage. Second, it takes over a gallon of fossil fuel (and 1,700 gallons of water) to produce a single gallon of E85. Third while in New Mexico E85 averages 4.7% a gallon cheaper than fossil fuel, E85 is subsidized to the tune of $1.05 to $1.38 a gallon. So... with a subsidy of just $1.05 a gallon added to the average price per gallon of E85, the actual cost of the corn-fed feel-good fuel is 33% higher than its fossil fuel equivalent.
Fourth, the Eyes have it that APD pays $.10 a gallon more for E85 than it does for the regular stuff and add to that the $.19 a gallon surcharge tacked on by the city to provide fuel to APD and you've got some really expensive fuel. Once you factor in lower mileage, higher cost, and taxpayer subsidies APD is paying roughly $5.69 a gallon for a fuel that uses as much fossil fuel as it produces in "green" fuel (read about it here).
Admittedly, the $1.05 subsidy isn't shouldered exclusively by Albuquerque taxpayers and the $.19 surcharge amounts to an interdepartmental transfer, but taxpayers are paying $.10 more per gallon for 30% lower performance. When you factor in the reduced performance of E85, it would be like pay $4.64 a gallon.
But wait... there's more! We haven't even mentioned Ford's failing fuel pumps - pumps that weren't designed to burn E85 exclusively. As a result, the pumps are all pumped out at about 2,000 miles and our Eyes tell us that Ford has decided to stop servicing the pumps under their warranty.
According to our Eyes, new fuel pumps for the Ford Crown Victorias cost between $685 and $699 each. If you figure that the average vehicle (not a police vehicle mind you) puts about 12,000 miles on the odometer, then each vehicle will need about 6 fuel pumps a year. We'd bet most of you don't even change your oil 6 times a year.
At a time when the city is looking under every rock to find a few bucks doesn't it seem strange that they'd continue to use a fuel that costs almost 2 bucks a gallon more, wastes 1700 gallons of water per gallon of fuel and causes every Crown Victoria in APD's fleet to have to replace their fuel pumps a minimum of 6 times a year? That's over $4100 a year per vehicle just in fuel pumps! And APD alone has over 700 vehicles!
The fact is, there's literally MILLIONS of dollars to be saved simply by dumping the E85 Eco-Fool... uh, fuel and yet APD is still using the stuff. Makes one wonder how serious the department and the mayor really are about saving money.
----- Update -----
In an attempt to compare apples to apples we inadvertently muddied the waters. If APD used the same number of gallons of E85 as they do unleaded (which they don't) the cost per gallon once vehicle performance is factored in would be $4.64 a gallon. The fact of the matter is that with the $.10 a gallon surcharge and a 30% reduction in vehicle performance, the department is paying well over 30% more for the same service. Which actually means that they're also dumping 30% more CO2 into the atmosphere it's just the CO2 is being dumped out at the farm as opposed to in the city.
24 comments:
Still a Sanctuary City, still paying Ed Adams, still pumping E-85 and the list goes on and on and on.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
With respect to the price of fuel this has been an on again off again problem since the last century.
Simple solutions, have suppliers bid their product or give credit cards to the officers and should they decide to improperly use the card sue them and harshly discipline them. NEXT
Same as the old boss? No, worse
wish you guys could chart this data!
I didn't vote for him!
Doesnt matter...marty please come back..save us from the cop and fireman hating tyrants
Is he 47?
All berry wants to do is take away from the employees that run this city. He is not interested in real solutions to save money. Hey berry here is a suggestion for you. Strap on a gun and walk down that dark alley with the buggieman waiting at the other end. Or how about running into a burning building to save a childs life. No after the Heros do the job darren will hold a press confrance to take credit. I wonder what would happen if all the city employees you want to take from just stopped doing their job. Real change ray and darren cost the city almost one million dollars for violating an APD officers rights. Now once again here comes darren violating another officers rights. This case is VANCE LUNSFORD AND ANTHONY MEDRANO PLAINTIFFS V.DARREN WHITE , SAL BARAGIOLA FOR VIOLATION OF TITLE VII OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 AND 42 U.S.C. & 1983. Oh berry baragiola now works for you another political appointment. darren why dont you hold a press confrance and tell the public how much this one cost us. Dont worry we know and soon we will post the amount and details so everyone will know the kind of person you really are.
I would like to know how much this cost the city PLEASE post the amount.
City council needs to take over the city and show these three bafoons the door. Berry, Campbell & White.
Phonies to the core.
Good luck with the Unions, as they will stick it to you
Saw Pug Face and Peaches today.
Very classy.
How come Berry & Campbell got new vehicles?
Marty's hand me down not good enough?
Too many cocktail stains on the seats I guess.
Bet they're not running that E-85 shit in their cars
The city of Albuquerque has agreed to pay $812,500 to settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of a young man with a learning disability who was arrested on DWI charges and spent two days in jail despite breath tests showing 0.0 blood-alcohol content.
Way to go guys!!
VANCE LUNSFORD AND ANTHONY MEDRANO PLAINTIFFS V.DARREN WHITE , SAL BARAGIOLA, DAVID LINTHICUM, DARCI BLASCHKE, RUSSELL BLASCHKE, MATT THOMAS, DUNCAN SANCHEZ and ROBERT TYLER FOR VIOLATION OF TITLE VII OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 AND 42 U.S.C. & 1983.
Vance will be getting paid, file cleared and promoted to Sgt. Anthony got the same but not promoted because he didnt put in for Sgt.
Im so happy these Officer's got Justice....to bad it didnt go to trial so all the criminal activity would come to light. Darren you are a POS.
BUCK FERRY!!!!
Another downside of E85 is that most police officers have to refuel at lease once a shift because of the lower mileage. Also there's only a single place to refuel (downtown) so that's even more time wasted that police officers could be patrolling or responding to calls. Why not give them gas cards or use a commercial fueling network that has locations all over the city?
What exactly qualifies Darren White to be in control of 52% of the city's expenditures? With the reorganization, Darren has more control over the city than Campbell.
Don't fool yourself, Darren and Berry are screwing what so many have worked so hard to do....have plenty of cops...
NO CONFIDENCE FOR DARREN WHITE!!!
These law suits are costing the City millions. Why isn't anyone held accountable?
Let's see;Costales case, $875,000.
Another case Darren just lost; estimated settlement $300,000 +.
Now this latest one for $812,000.
THATS ALMOST $2,000,000.00
WHY DO RAY AND DARREN STILL HAVE JOBS?
Someone needs to answer this question.
These people need to answer to the taxpayers.
Campbell & Berry: DO YOU HAVE THE ANSWER?
Because this topic is way down below, but still ongoing, I want to bring attention to the fact that in today's paper (Sat) Darren has his panties in a wad over the fact that in 2009 Paul Heh earned $54,000 in court overtime and as a result has convicted 200 DWI offenders.
(Probably made 300 arrests to get 2/3 convictions).
Question # 1
Is $270 worth taking one of these A-holes off our streets and preventing the loss of some body's loved ones. You bet it is.
Question #2.
Are the taxpayers OK with Darren and the chief's losing 3 lawsuits against the city in the tune of $2,000,000.00 in the past twelve months. I don't thinks so.
And for what it's worth Darren's job was supposed to have been eliminated when this new administration took over, as it is a worthless,un-needed job.
Question # 3. Do you think the taxpaying public is OK with that MR.berry? You bet they're not.
Darren- You're playing with fire 'little boy'
You're making this mayor look bad. You're through politically here, so why don't you just go back to Suffern New York? Maybe you can bullshit those hicks back there.
You've burned your friends and all your political capital with the Republicans ( Just ask Allen Weh)
Pack up your Peaches and 'GIT'
Darren is deviding APD. He speaks directly to issues that the Chief should be handling. Reminds me of Bakas and Gallegos. You cannot have two people speaking for APD. Soon the officers will be referring matters to White instead of where they belong and that is with the Chief. White just needs to sit back, collect his check and be quite but we cannot expect that from a consumate politician,
Which is exactly why we need to do a No Confidence for the "Public Safety Director". It's a joke of a position and the Berry administration needs to know we will not be quiet.
What a scam, fuel and maintaining our cars is killing us. I had my car at
First In for a spotlight bulb, I was told to leave my car and come back in an hour for a five minute fix. I bet it was a 300.00 light bulb!
This also was dumb *ss Greg Payne's idea too. So where is he hiding? Maybe under Daddy Payne's desk at the NM Legislature. Those no good wife beater's - he and Marty Chavez thought they had the City by the reins. GUESS WHAT CROOK AND CROOK? You were finally caught!! HA HA
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