Originally Posted By: another Todd
A couple weeks ago I traveled to Iowa, and spent about 10 days there. Iowa is one of the states that really pushed to get corn alcohol (ethanol) into the fuel. Yet, every gas station I went to had 87 octane with ethanol and 87 octane without alcohol for about 30 cents more a gallon. Everybody I saw pumping, and everybody I talked to used the non-ethanol stuff. Here in CA I cannot even find non-ethanol unless I buy a 5 gallon can of it for $70.00 at a distributor. What gives that the people who pushed it don't even use it?
Actually, Iowans buy more E10 by several margins than they buy ethanol free. That is pure fact. There are vastly more E10 pumps than there are ethanol free. We also buy E15, E20, E30, and E85 as prices fluctuate seasonally and make it a value choice. True, we have ethanol free very available most everywhere. While the EPA has some say in all of this, it is the state governments who actually dictate whether ethanol free can be available along side of E10 and such. That is where the blame lies. Iowa, while pushing ethanol use, does not hamstring its citizens from making their own choices. There are some retailers than don't have ethanol free, but that mostly centers around the available storage tanks they have. They are only going to carry E10 regular and premium.
But you mention California, and that says it all. Because of CA government nonsense, I no longer haul freight in or out of CA. Just not worth the hassles.
For many locations around the country, it is a game on how things are done. Many refiners will pipe 85 octane gasoline to some areas, that requires some ethanol to be blended in to make it 87 octane as required by car manufacturers and minimum octane standard regulations. Many refiners are taking advantage of the ethanol thing to ship cheaper produced fuel. So while it is easy to blame the corn lobby and the EPA, even the oil companies themselves share the blame.