Ethanol Blend 20 Cents Lower At Gas Pump

If you think you're paying a lot more for gasoline lately, the truth is, you are.

The price of regular unleaded is $2.93 a gallon in Sioux Falls, up 50 cents a gallon than a year ago.
You can blame it on the record rise of crude oil to more than 82 dollars a barrel, after a drop in U.S. supply.
But there is one bright spot at the pump: ethanol.

Gas with 10 percent ethanol is more than 20 cents a gallon cheaper and drivers are gobbling it up.

Driver Molly Stensaas says, "It's cheaper and we're farmers, so we've got to support the ethanol."

Mark Madeja of AAA South Dakota says, "I think especially in Midwestern area where ethanol is so prevalent, you do have more drivers switching over; regardless of what you might hear about how it affects miles per gallon and fuel economy and those sorts of things."

Driver Mariann Munk says, "I do still worry a little bit about it if it's as good for vehicles as it should be, but I have not had a problem so I'm using it."

Driver Jim Mahlen says, "I don't quite get the fuel economy I want, but the price makes up the difference."

Keloland Television, Sept. 21, 2007