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Flex Fuel and Electronic Vehicles

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E85
E85 is the term for motor fuel blends of 85 percent ethanol and just 15 percent gasoline. Ethanol is a renewable fuel made from plants. Essentially non-drinkable grain alcohol, ethanol is produced by fermenting plant sugars. It can be made from corn, sugar cane, and other starchy agricultural product. Today's FFVs feature specially-designed fuel systems and other components that allow a vehicle to operate on a mixture of gasoline and ethanol that can vary from 0 percent to 85 percent ethanol. These cars and trucks have the same power, acceleration, payload, and cruise speed as conventionally fueled vehicles. Maintenance for ethanol-fueled vehicles is very similar to that of regular cars and trucks. E85 also provides important reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. When made from corn, E85 reduces lifecycle GHG emissions (which include the energy required to grow and process corn into ethanol) by 15–20% as compared to gasoline. E85 made from cellulose can reduce emissions by around 70 percent as compared to gasoline. EPA's stringent Tier II vehicle emission standards require that FFVs achieve the same low emissions level regardless of whether E85 or gasoline is used. However, E85 can further reduce emissions of certain pollutants as compared to conventional gasoline or lower volume ethanol blends. For example, E85 is less volatile than gasoline or low volume ethanol blends, which results in fewer evaporative emissions. Using E85 also reduces carbon monoxide emissions and provides significant reductions in emissions of many harmful toxics, including benzene, a known human carcinogen.

Electric Vehicles
We own two Club Car Carry All XI electric vehicles. The Club Cars run on a 48v system with a range of 20–30 miles with an 8-10 hour recharge cycle. The use of electric vehicles for on campus driving has the potential to offset between 4.38 and 6.57 metric tons of carbon dioxide per vehicle per year. This is the equivalent of CO2 emissions from the energy use of a typical American home for six months or the carbon sequestered by 153 tree seedlings grown for 10 years.