By Dean Seyffer



My neighbour, Paul, is getting cranky again.

It’s winter 2009 and the price of petrol has been climbing up again. It’s deja-vous –   remember last winter…?

In August 08, Paul complained to me about the price of petrol – who can forget when it reached $1.69 per litre? Paul complained to me about the petrol giants. He complained about the steady, creeping, insidious climb of petrol prices all winter – that they had just gone up, and up, and up…before we knew it, petrol cost a staggering $1.69 /litre.

I felt sorry for Paul. He’s a family man who works hard at his job. He’s only human: he's tired of the price of petrol ever tightening his family’s budget.

“In June, it cost me $70 to fill up my 60 litre tank. Now it costs me $100. That’s an extra $120 /month just for my car, " he continued. "My wife’s car is filled once a fortnight. So together, she and I paid about $180 more for petrol in August, compared with June!! Isn’t it crazy?!!”

Paul waited for my reply -- waited for me to agree that it was bad for me too.

But it wasn't.

You see, my wife and I had flex fuel conversion kits installed in our cars, back in April 2008. We’d been fueling up on e85 ethanol fuel for 4 months by then, and its price hadn’t changed: it was just $1 / litre. E85 didn’t climb up and up like the petrol prices did. I did the quick math: for an equivalent 60 litres, we were paying roughly 40% less for our fuel, than Paul and Diane were.

So, as gently as I could, I told Paul about e85’s steady price, and explained that a flex fuel kit is a very affordable, one-off expense. I told him that our kits had already ‘paid for themselves’ – within those first 4 months of savings.

Paul didn’t want to find out more: he changed the subject….



That was in winter 08.

It’s now winter 09, and I’m watching the petrol prices climb up all over again. Will they reach $1.69 a litre again? Who knows? But what I do know is that e85 has held steady, throughout these 14 months since, at just $1 / litre…

I’m planning my family’s next holiday. I wonder what Paul’s doing. Diane told me that they haven’t switched to e85 yet. And Paul’s been looking pretty cranky again…
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