I’m sorry, but I really do have to ask that question.  With the price of oil falling, the price of petrol at the pumps has been falling too.  Yesterday, 95-octane “super” was down to 1.109€/litre.  On the other hand, when I went to fill up for bio-ethanol the other day, the price had gone up to 0.979€/litre.

Now, for the purposes of this calculation I’ll forget that I get a discount from my dealer on that price.  I remember working out a long time ago that I need about 20% more bio-ethanol to drive the same distance than normal petrol, and at a quick guess this appears to be about right.

So 0.979€ + 20% = 1.175€!  Hang on, that means I’m paying more for trying to be environmentally friendly!

Actually, with my discount I’m probably paying about the same as everyone else at the moment, but if the price of bio-ethanol continues to rise, it will only be a matter of time before many people start to calculate how much of a premium they are prepared to spend before changing back to traditional fuel.