Refueling and Infrastructure Costs of Expanding Access to E85 in Pennsylvania

Abstract

United States federal regulations require increasing renewable fuel blending in the transportation sector, a majority of which is corn ethanol. Nationally, ethanol is blended with gasoline up to 10% (E10) for use in conventional vehicles, and up to 85% (E85) for use in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). Meeting the blending requirements could mean increasing the ethanol blended with gasoline or E85 use in FFVs. The authors estimate costs typically not quantified for FFV drivers refueling with E85, which are a small component of total costs, and consider the infrastructure costs to expand E85 access in Pennsylvania. Even with a retailer incentive of $0.01 to $0.39/gasoline liter equivalent (gle) to encourage ethanol infrastructure installation, an E85 consumer would still also experience higher refueling costs. A E85 consumer refueling and convenience cost of $0.95/gle is higher than historical ethanol subsidies. Additionally, although switching from E10 to E85 could reduce emissions, a refueling incentive of $1,320/metric ton CO2 is 36 times larger than the average U.S. social cost of carbon (CO2) for 2015.