High Gasoline Prices? A lower cost, more secure fuel is already here

If you’ve been watching cable news in the past week, you can’t escape one topic: high gas prices. Images from the coasts are making their way around the internet showing retail prices above $6.00. American families, already feeling the squeeze from inflation, are feeling their wants crowded out of their budgets by their needs. Understandably, they are not happy.

So far, the public discussion on how to solve the problem has revolved around old, comfortable, and shortsighted ideas. An administration that began by committing itself to furthering renewable energy is now found begging other oil producing countries to fill the void created by Russian oil removed from the marketplace in the wake of their reckless invasion of a sovereign Ukraine. The Republican response has been just as uninspiring. Instead of seizing a moment to open markets, and true competition, we’re seeing elected officials take the easy route and suggest that American consumers should trade their dependence on Russian Oil for dependence on American Oil.

Newsflash: dependence on American oil is still just dependence on oil.

The true problem with high gas prices is that American consumers have limited options. In a free market system, government policy can’t be allowed to limit alternatives to emerge. Unfortunately, American consumers have been barred from that type of market for generations.

But I and a few of my friends are trying to change that.

A little background…

Three years ago, I couldn’t tell you the difference between the gasolines you can purchase at the pump. I didn’t know about the advances of modern internal combustion engines. And I didn’t know the truth about the role agriculture already plays in removing harmful greenhouse gas emissions from our atmosphere. That changed when I started working on behalf of agricultural producers here in Ohio.

In getting introduced to the American biofuels industry, I’ve learned some basics that just aren’t visible to the average consumer. Basics that, when revealed, show American energy (especially in the transportation sector) has real, available, and proven solutions to a whole host of problems that can be used by consumers today. All that’s needed is a political will.

Some facts you may not know

First off – if you think your car can’t run on ethanol, it already does.

Nearly every mile driven by passenger vehicles each year is powered by ethanol. Since 2001, modern engines have been optimized to utilize bio-ethanol. The gasolines we are most familiar with already include a 10% blend of ethanol that has helped replace harmful, cancer causing agents that have since been banned such as an additive known as MTBE.

That 10% blend ratio has ALREADY removed the average equivalent of 11.4 million cars’ emissions from the road, every year, since 2007.

But there’s a new opportunity for almost every passenger vehicle on the road today. Each year, 96% of the miles driven by American consumers are in vehicles that can run on a 15% blend of ethanol. That’s right, nearly every vehicle out there can use a fuel that is available, and growing in accessibility across the country.

Right now in central Ohio, that product – retailed as Unleaded 88 – is averaging a cost savings of 30 cents per gallon. That’s because ethanol’s production process has evolved to make it a more cost effective source of octane than anything else on the market. Those savings are more important than ever. And if you’re lucky enough to own a flex fuel vehicle, your savings are even greater through products like E85 that use even more ethanol per gallon.

But let’s talk security

Right now, there’s a lot affecting fuel prices. Inflation was already hitting consumers hard, but the Russian supply being cutoff compounds the problem. What if I told you it wouldn’t take drilling new oil wells, or spending billions on infrastructure, to make up the difference?

Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reveals that our Russian oil imports represent between 1.3 billion and 1.7 billion gallons of gasoline per year. If we replaced only 1/3 of our total regular gasoline with cleaner, less expensive and better performing Unleaded 88, we could replace 100% of the fuel we used to buy from Russia. That would require less than half of the annual unused ethanol production capacity we already have. And it can be used to lower costs of fuel for cars we already drive.

While the administration defaults to old solutions – opening the strategic petroleum reserve, begging OPEC, and encouraging domestic oil companies to utilize unused drilling leases – it’s important to remember we have a moment right now. A moment for an immediate transition to more consumer choice and cost savings at the pump. A moment to realize actual transportation energy independence. And a moment to deliver real, meaningful greenhouse gas emission reductions.

So what can you do?

Right now, you’re likely driving a vehicle that can save you money. Download the GasBuddy app and use it to see if there are higher blends of ethanol available in your area. If not, it’s time to start asking fuel retailers – and your legislators – why. Fuel retailers don’t do it all on their own. They are saddled with federal and state regulations that need modernization.

Don’t settle for the answers we used last century. Let’s encourage the use of American renewable fuels that can meet the needs of the 21st century.