If you think you're paying a lot more for gasoline lately, the truth is, you are. 

The price of regular unleaded is $2.93 a gallon in Sioux Falls, up 50 cents a gallon than a year ago.
You can blame it on the record rise of crude oil to more than 82 dollars a barrel, after a drop in U.S. supply.
But there is one bright spot at the pump: ethanol. 

Gas with 10 percent ethanol is more than 20 cents a gallon cheaper and drivers are gobbling it up. 

Driver Molly Stensaas says, "It's cheaper and we're farmers, so we've got to support the ethanol." 

Mark Madeja of AAA South Dakota says, "I think especially in Midwestern area where ethanol is so prevalent, you do have more drivers switching over; regardless of what you might hear about how it affects miles per gallon and fuel economy and those sorts of things." 

Driver Mariann Munk says, "I do still worry a little bit about it if it's as good for vehicles as it should be, but I have not had a problem so I'm using it." 

Driver Jim Mahlen says, "I don't quite get the fuel economy I want, but the price makes up the difference." 

We couldn't find anyone at this service station not filing up with an ethanol blend. And that can be really good for the economy because it has people driving more and spending more money. On the other hand it's not so good for South Dakota's agricultural economy. 

Mark Madeja says, "A lot of people are in the ethanol business right now. And last year one gallon of ethanol was selling for about double what it is this year." 

All those new ethanol plants have also driven the price of corn down. Even though farmers are still getting more than they have in the last ten years, corn is 50 cents less a bushel than last year. 

But the expansion of the ethanol businesses is doing exactly what was intended, helping Americans gain some relief from dependency on foreign oil. 

Jeff Parker says, "Phenomenal. I don't know why everybody doesn't use it." 

South Dakota gasoline prices still remain among the highest in the nation. Nationally the average for regular unleaded is $2.79 a gallon. In South Dakota it's almost 20 cents higher, another motivation to use the ethanol blend.