Ethanol free gasoline disappearing fast

gasbuddy.com ^ | 8/5/2013 | Patrick DeHaan

[Signalman]

Motorists in several states are facing a perhaps harsh reality: they're about to see their ethanol free gasoline dry up. North and South Dakota, Iowa, and parts of Minnesota and Nebraska may soon see their precious ethanol free regular unleaded disappear as refiners face the rising requirement of using ethanol to blend in gasoline.

According to InForum, this shift is already happening in North Dakota, where suppliers are moving away from offering non-ethanol regular 87-octane gasoline, thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The act requires blending more ethanol to gasoline over time, and as gasoline demand decreases, the oil industry is faced with blending ethanol any where it can- especially gasoline that doesn't yet contain the biofuel.

“We made the switch just in the last week,” DJ’s Tesoro General Manager Mike Staudinger said Friday from his Dickinson, North Dakota station. “We’re still in the infancy stage of finding out how people are going to react, but so far there hasn’t been much response. Some customers have asked why we’re not selling (87 octane) unleaded any longer, and we just say that it’s because the refinery isn’t making it anymore.”

DJ’s receives its fuels from the Tesoro Mandan Refinery, which no longer offers a regular unleaded 87 octane option to its commercial customers, Staudinger said.

“My understanding is that the fuel that is picked up in Glendive (Mont.) and made at Mandan Tesoro — they’re not making it anymore,” Staudinger said. “I can’t say that no other station is selling it, but, generally, you’re not going to be able to go down the road and buy regular unleaded without the up-to 10 percent ethanol added. So far, I’ve only had one customer that has been really upset about it.”

North Dakota Ethanol Council Chairman Jeff Zueger said the changeover has been in the works for the past couple of years nationwide, and that the state is simply witnessing the back end of the wave.

To meet the Renewable Fuel Standard, Zueger said suppliers are generally blending ethanol at about 10 percent of the makeup of the finished product.

While ethanol-free fuel is still an available at most gas stations, it’s going to cost more due to the absence of the cheaper ethanol.

And unfortunately, motorists don't have much of a say in the matter, even though there seems to be intense demand not only across North Dakota, but much of the United States. The GasBuddy team routinely receives inquiries from motorists on where they can find non-ethanol blended gasoline.

Set at 9 billion gallons in 2008, the required number of gallons of renewable fuel blends by 2022 is 36 billion gallons, according to the EPA website. The enhanced goal was put in place in as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, though the volume of domestically produced fossil fuels has skyrocketed in the U.S. over the past six years.

[Paladin2]

What about the "race" gas some (76) stations sell?

High Octane achieved through lead?

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

The only alcohol in an automobile should come in a six pack.

[jjotto]

I don’t know the exact formulas, but most racing fuel does contain some lead. And it would seem a much better choice than avgas for small engines.

BTW, neither F1 or NASCAR uses leaded fuel.

[The Great RJ]

Look at the EPA web site for mileage comparisons of various vehicles and their flex fuel versions using E-85 (85% ethanol/15% gasoline). With E-85 the mileage drops considerably. Several years ago the State of South Dakota discontinued using E-85 in their flex fuel fleet because the cost per mile was too high despite E-85 being about 24 cents per gallon cheaper.

[Clay Moore]

You could “wash” the ethanol out of the gasoline like you do making biodiesel. Introduce water, which binds with the alcohol and at a high enough concentration, drops out of solution.

The trouble is ethanol is also high octane and so is used to make the gasoline its proper octane rating.

What you then get is detonation and rapid engine failure.

[Jet Jaguar]

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that no ethanol gas is sold in Alaska.

[Gay State Conservative]

I drive diesel so ethanol in gas doesn’t concern me.But if I’m not mistaken state governments are mandating “biodiesel” of such a blend as to specifically violate the warranty requirements of the manufacturers...5% biodiesel...max.

[Starstruck]

Cornholioed gasoline.

[usconservative]

Because we’re signatories to several trade treaties the US was taken to a world court and accused of subsidizing farmers in violation of a treaty. We lost, because we do subsidize farmers. So, our trading partners were all given permission under the treaty to implement penalty tariffs. And they did, in spades. The trade impact was huge. So, Congress came up with this ethanol defense priority, which was a subsidy to farmers under a different name; but it was allowed under the treaty.

I certainly learned something new today, thanks for your informative post!

[trebb]

Odd, I'd read a different article here on FR which stated the EPA was relaxing the requirement to include ethanol, partially due to them finally figuring it out that Ethanol does NOTHING to reduce dependence on foreign oil and in fact makes us burn more due to the fact it's an MPG killer.

I saw the same article. Used ethanol-free for a while, but the cost/benefit wasn't worth going out of my way for the "pure gas". It costs more to manufacture with ethanol, but the smaller availability makes ethanol-free more expensive. Got a small increase in mileage, but the extra cost ate it up.

[Gen.Blather]

This trade treaty enforcement mechanism is the most likely way the small arms treaty would be enforced. A gun from “Joe’s Guns” is used to kill somebody in London. We’d go to court, lose, and the world would then impose tariff’s on all US goods until the government stops all gun sales in the US. The Democrats would say, “Hey, it’s not us!”