E85 Picking Up Speed?

Recently I've been hearing more and more local buzz about E85, which is a cleaner and less oil-dependent fuel mixure of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. I've read about success stories in Brazil for awhile, and occasionally heard it knocked around in domestic news, but it seems like Indiana (and the Midwest in general) is starting to really pick up on it. And for good reason: ethanol is produced from corn -- and yeah -- "there's more than corn in Indiana," but c'mon. This trend should be good for local farmers, which should be good for the state in general.

Stations that pump E85 have been appearing around the state recently, the latest addition close to Indy in Carmel, at the Crystal Flash station on Rangeline south of Main.

With gas prices soaring, and E85 sold for about 30% less than regular unleaded, it seems likely that demand will increase. My understanding is that modern cars can run on E85, but really aren't designed to, so may experience problems or serious inefficiencies. GM is coming out with some cars that handle both E85 and regular 10% Ethanol well, which should also help spur demand.

UPDATE: I've written a new post based on a useful article published in Consumer Reports that casts some doubts on the benefits of E85.