Tax season is upon us. As I review my expenses for last year, I realized once again how much I spend on fuel for vehicles. I own stock in Chevron and Exxon, so on one hand I am happy. But the unhappy hand is much bigger.
I own a hybrid Toyota Highlander as my primary vehicle. I bought it partly because I enjoy new technology, and partly because I do what I can to reduce my energy consumption. As such, I watch every tank full of fuel go through this car. It's rated at just over 30 mpg, and I have done 30 mpg many times. But what I have noticed is that the fuel I use plays a big factor. Sometimes, I get less than 25 mpg. Fuel from one particular station gives my about 22 mpg.
After doing a little research, I've discovered that ethanol-enriched gasoline gives you worse mileage than straight gas; I've read between 10 and 20% worse mileage. That fits with my fuel use observations. So let's do a little math: If I get 10 mpg with straight gas, and 9 mpg with 10% ethanol-gas (a 10% reduction), I need 9 gallons of straight gas to go 90 miles. But I need 10 gallons of 10% gas to go 90 miles. 10% of 10 gallons is 1 gallon. So of the 10 gallons of 10% gas, 9 gallons is pure gas. 1 gallon is pure ethanol. (Don't let the low mpg fool you. It works the same at 100 mpg versus 90 mpg.)
Somehow I use the same amount of pure gas either way. So how can this be good for us? How can that lessen our dependency on foreign oil? What part of the picture am I missing?
