It is certainly a debate without end. I would like to see it gone for personal and economic reasons. Though I am fully aware it ain’t going away.
I buy it when I can. Which is generally only for my motorcycle because I ride all over central KY for pleasure, my cars are transportation only and don’t often get driven where I can get it.
Since the gas station nearest to my water well is 5 miles away, they should bring back MTBE, which is what they used here before ethanol. (Reason they stopped using MTBE is groundwater contamination. Some states actually banned it, but it isn’t banned at the Federal level. Since the Feds wouldn’t grant the oil companies immunity from lawsuits over MTBE groundwater contamination, the oil companies stopped using it.)
Both MTBE and ethanol are used as octane enhancers and also make the gasoline meet the EPA requirement for oxygenated gasoline.
And usage of MTBE or ethanol actually reduces the cost of gasoline, because they’re able to take “BOB” (before oxygenate blending) gas which has an octane rating of about 85, blend in 10% ethanol (or MTBE, in years past) and that brings the octane up to 87.
The other octane booster that was used is TEL (lead) and that can no longer be used because it turns people into retards, among other things.