E10: Just A Pleasant Memory?
The Renewable Fuel Standard mandates that increasing gallon amounts of biofuel be blended into U.S. fuel supplies each year. As our overall consumption drops and the required gallons of biofuel increases, the percentage of biofuel in our supply goes up. What we are calling the "blend floor" would then, by law, be higher than E10.

Required Biofuel - Per current trends, our fuel consumption will likely be less in 2022 than today but if it just remains at 2013's consumption total of 134.51 billion gallons of gasoline, the mandated biofuel blend floor would be as follows:

2014 - 15.21 billion gallons = E11
2022 - 36 billion gallons = E26

+26 cents
The cost increase, per gallon of gas, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office reported could occur by 2017 if the EPA does not lower the RFS targets

+51 cents
The cost increase, per gallon of diesel, that could occur by 2017 according to the CBO report

For Now, Fuel Costs Are Down
-7.8 cents – cost decrease of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. compared to mid-August prices in 2013
-6.5 cents – cost decrease of a gallon of diesel in the U.S. compared to mid-August prices in 2013
The U.S. Energy Information Administration attributes the price drops to increases in U.S. oil production and a lower demand for fuel, due in part to the use of more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Cost of Doing Business
3.5% to 10% – the range of total company expenditures spent on monthly fuel costs this landscape season based on a recent LC/DBM reader questionnaire

Comments from Our Readers:
"Diesel fuel is our biggie. We use gas to run equipment and our personal and sales vehicles, but all our work trucks are diesel."
"My electric vehicle dropped my costs from $200 per month for gas to $15 per month for electricity."
"(Costs) normally hover around five percent and can creep up from there depending on the location of our projects."
"We use compressed natural gas for our 1-ton crew van. CNG is about $60 per month instead of $250 per month."