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CARTHAGE, ILL. -- Dozens of cars rolled through a local service station in Carthage Wednesday afternoon for the lowest gas price Tri-State area has seen in years.

If only for a few hours, Roger Law's Service Station provided ethanol, or E-85, for just 85 cents a gallon. Customers could fill up to 10 gallons worth that amount.

E-85 is a renewable fuel made from corn and other plant materials. So naturally, it's most popular in the farming communities.

"I buy E-85 because it helps support the farmers," Steve Beekman, a Warsaw resident said.

"We noticed that more cars are able to accept it now. So, we are getting more people that come through," Sara Brockman, manager of the Hancock County Farm Bureau said. "If we can find more uses of corn and being more self-dependent, that is always a positive in its own self."

The Hancock County Farm Bureau and West Central FA spend one day every March promoting E-85 in Carthage.

"I didn't time it very good, because I had three-quarters of a tank, so I could only squeeze in 6 gallons," Beekman said.

Beekman says there are cons to E-85, but he believes the pros outweigh them.

"You lose a little bit of your gas mileage burning the E-85, but then you pay a little cheaper price for it," Beekman said.

"People think it costs more to make the ethanol than what you get out of it, but when you figure where the byproducts go into the livestock and so forth, it makes it a very efficient product. Good for the vehicles, good for the environment and good for all of us," Steven Renard, a Hamilton farmer said.

"It's not something you have to use all the time, but today it's definitely worth it," Brockman said.

With the E-85, your car has to run on the flex fuel option. Older cars and trucks aren't fitted to operate on the E-85 blend.