It is not Ethanol it is Welfanol

There is a store no simple market,
between the Tech and the Subway,
and if you go no woman may follow,
Fleet Farm is meant for men alone!

Kidding aside, I have started going to Fleet Farm's gas station. At first, it was for the discount but very quickly I noticed something. Recently a buddy told me he goes to Fleet Farm for his fuel too, noting Fleet Farm's 87 octane fuel is ethanol-free! Now, he is a small engine freak and says even E10 is hard on small engines and their components.

My Suburban was getting roughly 15 mpg when it is rated at about 17 mpg. However, after switching to Fleet Farm gas I am now get close to 18 mpg! That is a 20% improvement for no extra cost. So, on a 25 gallon fill I can range about 450 instead of 375.

Sometime ago I did the numbers on E85 versus E10 and noticed a decrease in mileage that was not offset by the E85 prices. In fact, the cost is higher considering one needs to stop and fuel up more often. If I can get E0 for just as much as E10, guess which one wins? In fact, access to E0 and the 4 cent coupon are affecting my shopping patterns and this program is pulling some of my business from Menards!

I am interested in minimizing my cents per mile -- plain and simple. Any other result is a waste of money. The only possible benefit is ethanol increases the demand for corn which helps out my friends and neighbors. However ethanol, despite heavy governmental subsidies ethanol is too expensive. Even E85 is overpriced (it should be about 25% cheaper than E10) at most stations and only one station in my area approaches a reasonable price. The Kwik Trip off of College Avenue near HWY 41 practices thievery in its E85 prices.

Ethanol has a place in our energy supply but what we currently have is welfanol and I say just say no to welfanol.

110# Of Rice

The wife and I bought 110 pounds of rice in the past two days. I bought ten pounds of basmati rice and today we bought 100 pounds of jasmine rice.

The Tilda brand basmati rice cost about $13.00 for the ten pounds, this is not way out of line with my expectations. However, the store I bought it from was out today and who knows what the price is going to be when they get more in stock.

The jasmine rice cost us about $40.00/50# and the store proprietor informed us she was about to raise the prices by about $2.00/50#. The rice price is rising faster than gasoline. Last I recall paying for a 50# bag of rice was about half of that, $20-$23.

A lot of noise is being made how this is all ethanol's fault. While I think it wrong-headed to provide subsidies to divert food products into energy products (energy for non-humans) I am very skeptical about ethanol's culpability in the rice crisis. There are reports the rice harvest this year was way down and producers are limiting exports to cover their own nutritional needs. I think that the most likely cause. Domestic US rice prices were still reasonable. I do not believe many of the lands where there is a rice crisis subsist on cheap corn and are forced to eat rice due to corn diversion. Central and South American nations may be in that situation, but my guess is Southeast Asian nations are not.

The rush to blame ethanol production is more blame the US for the world's woes.

What else may be underlying this? Oil costs. Don't think by oil costs I mean gasoline. Oil means a lot more than gasoline. Oil means fertilizer, oil means plastics, oil means other vital synthesized chemicals vital to our modern life. I mean gasoline and more.

Still I am not convinced it is all petroleum.