Fill ‘er up with gasohol, biodiesel, E85 …

For Dan Norte, deciding where to fuel up his Ford F150 pickup is not always as simple as scanning pump prices. When he heads to Iowa to see family, the synthetic-oil dealer from Owatonna, Minn., burns an 87-octane Minnesota-mandated gasoline blend that is 10 percent corn-based ethanol. It costs about the same as comparable-grade gasoline.

For the trip back he has a 15-percent option, an Iowa blend rated at 89 octane that can be up to a nickel a gallon cheaper. But Mr. Norte has figured out that his savings would probably be erased by lost m.p.g. from the faster-burning fuel.

With energy independence increasingly cast as a matter of national security, and the doubling of biofuel output by 2012 mandated by last summer’s energy bill, plenty of other Americans are finding more cause for making complex calculations that involve alternative fuels.

Some 90 percent of 1,000 voters surveyed last month by the nonpartisan Energy Future Coalition in Washington supported the notion of having one-quarter of US energy demand met by renewables by 2025.

Christian Science Monitor