Yesterday POET made a convincing argument to the city they should switch the city fleet to Flex-Fuel E-30. While I understand the reasoning, there are two opposing arguments; 1) there would be issues with warranties, 2) E-30 still contains 70% petroleum based fuels.
My thought was if we were going to go to the expense of starting to change the fleet over we should start bold.
My suggestion would to outfit all the city garages (parks, public works, administration building, etc) with solar panels and charging stations. We really should be switching our car and small SUV and truck fleet to electric. Not only is electric reliable, it would save the city millions in fuel costs. The city already gets affordable electricity from our own electric department, what electric recharging the solar panels could not provide could be subsidized by our own power grid.
On top of that, we would probably have the fastest patrol cars in the state. An electric vehicle can go 0 to 60MPH in 4 seconds. The initial investment would not be cheap, but it would pay huge dividends. Corn fuel, not so much. Don’t the Broin Brothers have enough money from government subsidies?
I STRONGLY DISAGREE. 30% fuel is a problem in winter. Alcohol induced water prompts gasoline line freeze. Heavy equipment (especially) has issues. Electric cars and trucks have expensive batteries that are succeptible to cold weather. Electric vehicles do not get warm for passengers like water heat cores in gas engines. We are to far north for full time solar power. The sun is closer to the horizon. Panels must be bigger (more expensive) such that snow accumulation and heavy rain cells are an issue. We have more cloudy days in spring and winter. Backup power would be expensive diesel generators. Clean energy works well in warmer southern states. As the convert, regular energy hardware will go down in price. Usual but not antiquated energy is best for South Dakota. However, wind energy is an exception. We have lots of cheap open space and plenty of wind. Especially, on Tuesday night at Carnegie Hall.
Theres no converting vehicles to 30%. It’s a waste to switch to anything greater than 10% Ethanol. Ethanol has a 1/3 less BTU.
LJL is right. An alcohol mix is low price but MPG is less. Hence, either is the same cost. However, gas or 10% (somewhat) is kinder on wear and without sophisticated re-engineering. POET is like Scientology. It’s an empire without practicality and perseverance.