E85 Eco-Fool

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.