That weird, cheaper gas station down the street

A couple of months ago, the first bio-diesel/flex-fuel station in town opened a few blocks from where I live, offering alternative fuel options to cars with the option. What the hell is flex-fuel? Is it any good for the environment, in addition to being about $1 cheaper per gallon (2.99)?

According to CNN Money, Flex-fuel vehicles running on E85 fuel will do the following:

• Gives less fuel efficiency (in comparison to gasoline)
  
• Even while the fuel cost is cheaper, it will still cost you more each year with less fuel efficiency than running with gasoline.
• Give small increase in peak horsepower
• Burns more cleanly than gasoline in terms of air pollution, however, since they must burn more, it makes things close to even in comparison to regular gasoline.
  

If your car is a flex-fuel vehicle it should indicate it somewhere either on the car itself or in the manual. Flex-fuel vehicles have been made since around 1991, so it isn't completely unheard of. Flex-fuel stations are hard to find outside of the Midwest (I wouldn't know, though), due to the fact that corn is the heavily involved ingredient in flex-fuel, however, it can take many other forms. New forms of fuel, like cellulostic ethanol (made from plant parts), are in the making which may replace petroleum based parts of fuel.

So if you are thinking of investing in a new or used eco-friendly vehicle, you'd be better going with the Prius, or maybe just a more fuel efficient car (I am proud to say my Pontiac Vibe makes the Kelley's Blue Book List of most fuel efficient cars). You dont have to have a great car so help the Earth either, many parts of a car are recyclable as time takes its toll, so be sure if a car part needs to be replaced, whether its the oil to tires to batteries, the old part may be recycled. Better, greener cars are on their way too. For those of you who watched "Who Killed the Electric Car?" Saturn is now in the process of developing the Saturn Flextreme, a 100% electric car with zero emissions, and very sleek as well. Rock on Saturn!

For more information on Fuel-Flex vehicles, here are a couple of resources:
Kelley Blue Book Article
CNN Money

"Green" film of the month

My apologies for absent posts, things have been chaotic lately, the in-laws have been visiting :)

Anyways, today I would like to recommend a film for you, rent it on Netflix or Blockbuster or you can get it from Best Buy. I am a huge fan of documentaries and loved Netflix for the fact they had as many documentaries as I wanted to see. The sad part about documentaries is that they are hardly available at local video rental places and other types of video stores. So for this weekend, give "Who killed the Electric Car?" (2006) a try, as my "green" film of the month. This film documents the coming (and unfortunate going) of the EV1, a vehicle made by GM and was serviced by Saturn dealerships.

The film provides humor, but is also very educational regarding how recent cars like the "hydrogen fuel cell" car actually works. The director goes through each prospective new "greener" car, if its any good, and also who is to blame for the loss of the electric car (EV1). You'll also run into some interesting people throughout the show, like Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, and Ralph Nader, if you are into famous people. It is also narrated by Martin Sheen.

If you haven't been a big goer of documentaries before, the point is to educate you, but in the end to make up your own mind.