Over the past fifty years, the United States has become more environmentally conscious. Marking this “environmental movement” in America was the 1970’s decade. During this era, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was founded as well as the first Earth Day. As time progressed, the U.S. EPA passed several significant acts to keep the environment clean and safe. Specifically, the Clean Air Act was passed for the wellbeing of our health and atmosphere. According to the Clean Air Act, fueling stations should encourage the use of clean-burning and low sulfur fuels, such as ethanol. Throughout the early 2000’s, ethanol became adopted into the fuel market; however there was controversy with the newly adopted fuel (EPA 1). Though ethanol is a controversial subject, fuels blended with ethanol are superior compared to pure gasoline.
Specifically, ethanol is an alcohol derived from a grain source, such as corn or sugar cane. Because the U.S. has a plentiful corn supply, the majority of the ethanol distributed in the United States originates from corn. Numerous fueling stations across America offer blended mixtures of gasoline and ethanol to consumers.
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For one, ethanol’s price varies extensively throughout America. Concerning the varying price, the supply corn is a primary factor. In parts of the country where corn is a productive crop, the price of ethanol will be relatively affordable. However, places where corn is unproductive, or not grown, consumers will pay a higher price for ethanol fuel. Low fuel economy is another downfall to ethanol fuel. Compared to gasoline, ethanol lowers vehicles’ mileage considerably. At most, ethanol can decrease vehicles’ mileage by 20-30%. Particularly, consumers who live in area where corn is not productive, the lower mileage may turn people away from purchasing and utilizing ethanol fuel (Health Research Funding