The Congressional Budget Office says, “In the future, meeting (biofuels) mandates will be challenging” because of the so-called blend wall at the traditional blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline and because of the slow development of second-generation biofuels from nonfood crops. “Overcoming the blend wall will require capital investments in fueling stations and significant subsidies to encourage use of E85,” says CBO in a presentation titled “The Renewable Fuel Standard: 2014 and Beyond.”
CBO estimated a cost of 10 cents a gallon for the tanks and pumps that gas stations would need to sell enough E85 to increase ethanol consumption by 6 billion gallons a year. It said E85 wold have to be subsidized by $1.35-$1.90 a gallon “to achieve sufficient increase in demand for E85.” Motorists would have to re-fuel more often because of the lower energy content of E85 and they would have to drive farther to find a station selling E85, said CBO. At present, 2 percent of gas stations sell the fuel.