Sobering words for ethanol backers...

The highly respected Consumer's Reports has produced a no-nonsense review of an FFV Tahoe.

They were not amused:

• The fuel economy of the Tahoe dropped 27 percent when running on E85 compared with gasoline, from an already low 14 mpg overall to 10 mpg (rounded to the nearest mpg). This is the lowest fuel mileage we’ve gotten from any vehicle in recent years.

and

• The FFV surge is being motivated by generous fuel-economy credits that auto-makers get for every FFV they build, even if it never runs on E85. This allows them to pump out more gas-guzzling large SUVs and pickups, which is resulting in the consumption of many times more gallons of gasoline than E85 now replaces.

I've talked about his before (the mileage problem) and while it's a legitimate gripe, it seems to me the rush to ethanol will shoulder mere consumer complaints aside. Still we could be setting up for some market whiplash if ethanol limitations are not fully disclosed and oil/gasoline prices continue to fade.

How low could gas prices go? Some predictions are starting to sound too good to be true.