E10 gas prices inch past regular

As summer holiday traffic hits high gear, consumers are feeling a different sort of sticker shock at the gas pump.

Retailers across Iowa have started charging more for ethanol-blended gasoline than for regular gas. In some places, gasoline containing 10 percent ethanol – E10 – costs an extra dime or more per gallon, rather than a few pennies less, as is typical.
Consumers and farmers, who have been pummeled by high fuel prices for more than a year, are protesting.

“Why is ethanol 10 to 12 cents more per gallon?” said Steve Kirkpatrick, a Cedar County corn grower. Prices that he receives for his corn remain low, he said, despite the increased retail price of ethanol. “Why am I getting taken twice?”

Kirkpatrick and other ethanol proponents are concerned that consumers may shy away from higher-priced ethanol blends, just as the industry is trying to win widespread consumer acceptance. Ethanol blends reduce fuel efficiency, resulting in lower gas mileage, so costs even a few pennies higher per gallon could prove disastrous for the fledgling renewable fuels business, some believe.

Energy market analysts say various factors have driven E10 prices higher, including a federal mandate requiring increased use of ethanol and soaring demand for the renewable fuel, particularly from more populous areas on the East and West coasts.

 Des Moines Register