IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/coecpo/v8y1990i4p138-152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Economics Of Alternative Fuel Use: Substituting Methanol For Gasoline

Author

Listed:
  • THOMAS J. LAREAU

Abstract

Alternative fuel advocates recommend substituting methanol for gasoline since methanol cars potentially pollute less. However, because the substitution is costly and the reduction of ozone precursor emissions is relatively small, using methanol raises questions about cost effectiveness. This study demonstrates that the air quality benefits would be very expensive: The cost effectiveness usually would exceed tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars per ton of reduced volatile organic compound emissions. Only if all the cost and emissions assumptions lined up favorably would methanol substitution be desirable. Even then, it would be attractive only if the energy‐adjusted price difference between gasoline and methanol were just a few cents a gallon.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas J. Lareau, 1990. "The Economics Of Alternative Fuel Use: Substituting Methanol For Gasoline," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 8(4), pages 138-152, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:8:y:1990:i:4:p:138-152
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-7287.1990.tb00307.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1990.tb00307.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1465-7287.1990.tb00307.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. ARTHUR FRAAS & ALBERT McGARTLAND, 1990. "Alternative Fuels For Pollution Control: An Empirical Evaluation Of Benefits And Costs," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 8(1), pages 62-74, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hyunok Lee & Joseph W. Glauber & Daniel A. Sumner, 1994. "Increased Industrial Uses Of Agricultural Commodities Policy, Trade And Ethanol," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 12(3), pages 22-32, July.
    2. Wang, Quanlu & Sperling, Daniel & Olmstead, Janis, 1993. "Emission Control Cost-Effectiveness of Alternative-Fuel Vehicles," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt3bw4t5pw, University of California Transportation Center.
    3. Rask, Kevin, 2004. "Clean air policy and oxygenated fuels: do we get what we pay for?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 161-177, January.
    4. Alan J. Krupnick & Margaret A. Walls, 1992. "The cost-effectiveness of methanol for reducing motor vehicle emissions and urban ozone," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(3), pages 373-396.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:coecpo:v:8:y:1990:i:4:p:138-152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.