Ethanol Free

We drive an old car... not old enough to be cool, but not new enough to be nice... it's just old.

And I don't mind... except for the gas millage.

A few weeks ago we decided that we would try the only ethenol free gas station around, it's a Philips in Meridian, Id.  While Cori was paying he was asking the woman at the counter about the difference and she was just sharing with him that until recently there have been a couple other stations who still carried ethanol free, but they could no longer afford to compete with the other gas stations who do sell ethanol gas and are subsidized by the government for selling it...

WAIT A MINUTE... 

The government subsidizes farmers to grow corn to make into ethanol... 

Then subsidizes gas station owners to sell it? 

That seemed wrong.

We're on our third take of gas from the Philips... and you know what? Our car went from getting 11 or 12 mpg in town to getting 16 or 17.... 

Does this make any sense? 

(Don't tell me ethanol is better for the environment- check out the 'footprint' it requires to make that ethanol first... it's no better)

It costs a couple bucks more... but I feel like we're getting our money out of it in the made up mileage, and I take a lot of satisfaction in not perpetuating our flawed subsidies system.