76210Guy

The problem is starting to be hard to find stations that don't have some ethanol in their fuels.

mmarshall

EPA, in many areas, especially in and around major cities, won't allow straight-gasoline to be sold any more. E10 is pretty much required in much, if not most, of the U.S.

mmarshall

It's not necessarily based on public opinion in the Northeast. Because of New England's climate, they just don't (and can't) grow much corn in the area. E85, not surprisingly, has always been most popular in the Midwestern Corn Belt, where most of the corn crop is grown. Of course, ethanol can be made from other substances, too, but corn has proven, in the U.S., to be the best and most reliable/cost-effective way of producing it.

Ethanol's effect on corn-prices, while significant, has, IMO, been overestimated. That is because much of the corn that is used for ethanol production is lower-grade corn that would be normally used to feed farm or ranch animals, not the better-quality corn that you would buy at the market for human consumption.

mmarshall

Those materials are ethanol-friendly up to E10 (and maybe slightly higher), but E15 or higher can cause problems....except for the purpose-designed E85 engines used in some GM and Chrysler products. And automakers will not cover damage caused by fuels with too much ethanol in them.

dunnojack

so this gets less mpg than regular gas...
and prices will stay the same.

great...

J.P.

Only place around here is the boat docks that still sell it pure, but you sure pay for it

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

more of your tax dollars will go to corn subsidies also and your food prices will go up.

Ethanol creates so much imbalance and vulnerabilities in our food supply by distorting what the market really wants because of the BS subsidies, we have way way too much corn. That in turn gives us less resources to grow other things like wheat, soybean, etc.

Rock-a-Lex

iTrader: (4)

hmmm...this whole situation is similar with illegal drugs. (really, I don't have any experience with them; just using as reference...not being sarcastic).

For example, you keep cutting the drug and cutting the drug a million times where now it is FAR FROM pure but yet you still charge the same for it or more! The items added to cut are often even worse for the user (in this case, the car).

These oil companies are far from stupid. Say they estimate that they has 60 yrs of oil left to profit at X rate (being pure), they can make that same oil last perhaps 85yrs+ by cutting it with additives (ethanol) that can still make the fuel usable to cars (albeit in a poor way because gas mileage goes down) therefore adding another 20+ yrs of ridiculous profits further out. It is such a SCAM and the governmental authorities allowing the increase of ethanol to be implemented are also CROOKS as I am sure they are getting tremendous kick backs for allowing this increase to pass law.

The % of ethanol (cut) will continue to rise until the last drop of oil is out of the ground. As someone else mentioned that since ethanol is corn-based it also is effecting our crop market. IMHO there are NO "PROS" with the addition of ethanol in our gasoline other than oil companies profit more and for a longer period of time. We've had gasolhol (10% ethanol and gasoline) here in NY for at least 10 yrs or more.

Funny, because I remember reading a thread on here a long time ago where a member from Tennessee (sp?) was recently subjected to this "gasohol" in his town and commented on his car not running as good as it once did and that his gas mileage went down by ~2-3mpg; I think I commented, "join the club...we've had it for many years already!" or something like that.

mmarshall

I don't think that 100LL AvGas (piston-engine aviation fuel) has any ethanol in it, but it is not entirely lead-free either...using it may (?) risk the catalytic converter. And, like Marine boat-fuel, you pay for it.