So many choices for gasoline.

[Ray]

Today in my daily Ag Newsletter.

E15 Could Trim California Gas Prices
California’s legendary high gasoline prices could be knocked back as much as 20 cents per gallon if the state allows the sale of E15, a new study revealed. Increasing the volume of ethanol to 15% from the current 10% would increase the state’s overall fuel supply and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The study was released this week by the Renewable Fuels Association and was conducted by economists at UC Berkeley and the U.S. Naval Academy.

(Still trying to fiugure out how the Naval Academy got involved in this.)

Reports on a 2022 article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

 “Corn ethanol is not a climate-friendly fuel,” said Dr. Tyler Lark, assistant scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment and lead author of the study.


The research, which was funded in part by the National Wildlife Federation and U.S. Department of Energy, found that ethanol is likely at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions resulting from land use changes to grow corn, along with processing and combustion.

Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, the ethanol trade lobby, called the study "completely fictional and erroneous," arguing the authors used "worst-case assumptions [and] cherry-picked data."

(Of course, we all know a midwestern corn farmer, who has a better feel for this than any of us.....)