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Imagine filling up for only $1.85 a gallon -- a price unseen in the D.C. region for four years. Nearly 500 people got the chance Friday at a gas station in Germantown.
But there was a catch.
The station was offering E85 fuel -- 85-percent ethanol, 15-percent gasoline -- for $1.85 a gallon, for 185 minutes. In all, 487 people filled there tanks, but many others were out of luck.
While almost all vehicles can run on a 10-percent blend of ethanol and gasoline, only a few use the highly alcoholic fuel.
For Bill Foltin, it was a sign the car he bought six months ago was about to pay off.
"I just think $4 a gallon is ridiculous, really," he said.
His FlexFuel vehicle is one of seven million vehicles on the road that can run on E85, which is usually about 60 cents a gallon cheaper than unleaded.
But, according to Fulton, "You haven't been able to find it anywhere."
Lou Bailey paid $27.50 for his minivan fill-up.
"Better than 50 or 60 dollars," he said. "I'm happy!"
But others, like Lyisha Genies, of Germantown, were out of luck.
"I rushed right here, but couldn't get that kind of gas," she lamented.
There are only 19 E85 stations within 200 miles of D.C., according to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.
http://www.e85refueling.com/index.phpBurl Haigwood, of the Flexible Fuel Vehicle Club, says his group aims to educate people about E85.
"We're trying to make sure people know who has the Flex Fuel vehicle and who doesn't," he said.
Vehicles that can run on E85 usually say so on their gas caps.
Manuel Villegas only discovered a few days ago that his vehicle can use E85. Now he's glad his budget's getting a break.
"I was trying to rid of my truck, I was spending so much gas money, but now I'm going to keep it," he said.
There will likely be more vehicles to fill up with E85 in the future. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have all said they half their new vehicles will be flexfuel vehicles by 2012.
The CAFE standards has a loophole, that being that an E85 vehicle operating on E85 miles per gallon are ONLY figured against the actual amount of gasoline in the blend (15%) if you divide 100% fuel by 15% gasoline you get the multiplier to the mpg (666) therefore a gas guzzling 10 MPG SUV is given credit for 66.6 MPG. If you sell one SUV like this you can have 5 vehicles only achieving 20 MPG and this gas guzzling SUV and you average more than 27 MPG overall while not one of their vehicles really met the standard.
GM is not the only one taking advantage of this free ride Ford and Chrysler are too. The big three are heading down the toilet and this is just their hands clinging to the rim.
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