Posted on 05/28/2026 10:10:09 AM PDT by moviefan8
This week, Lee Zeldin’s EPA announced “approving nationwide E15,” pitching it as “fortifying the domestic fuel supply.” What that means exactly is that the federal government will allow more stations to cut gasoline with ethanol, which, yes, makes it cheaper, but it also yields less power and worse fuel economy in your engine.
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In a lot of areas, there is only one pipeline bringing gasoline into a terminal. The tankers come in, pull into their brands lane, and their “special additives” are blended into the bulk gasoline. So if one station is getting E15, they all are.
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Huh - You get it. Everybody gets the same raw gas. The “special additives” will change depending on brand - driers, cleaners, etc. They get added when the tanker fills up.
Ethanol is just another “additive” far as I know. Somebody in the business come straighten me out if I goofed on the alky. I won’t mind - honest.
Cheaper only because they gave your tax money to the corn farmer already.
More expensive, including the tax transfer of your wealth before the pump.
I’ve had multiple problems with fuel hoses in oldish lawnmowers and such deteriorating, presumably due to E-10 fuel. Or, maybe they were just cheap year 2000-ish Chinese hoses.
However, I did not buy those specific shaped lines to do repairs: Instead, I merely bought a few feet of correct size fuel hose rated for ethanol, cut to length needed, and ran them with a modicum of (un?)-common sense. There was a bit of “a-engineering” in a couple cases to keep them in place with no sharp bends or kinks, and in one case, away from a hot spot & better than the original.
Problem solved, at about 1-fortieth the cost (per repair) that you state. Possibly it took slightly longer in a couple cases. “They ain’t factory”, but I could care less.
I knew a corn farmer in North Dakota who bought a brand new Corvette and GMC Truck each year from the cash he received from the Feds (yours and my taxes) for rolling one loaded truck full of corn per day to the ethanol plant.
Richest farmer I knew in NoDak.
Geez, my old Honda CRX got 65 mpg plus on the highway, 71 mpg on one long trip with a backing wind and drafting semi’s at a safe distance.
Granted, that was when the Interstate speed limit was 55 mph. MPG dropped off badly above the low 60’s (mph).
From co-pilot.ai, and jives with my memory:
In 2015, during the run‑up to the Iowa caucuses, Scott Walker shifted from opposing ethanol mandates to supporting the federal mandate in the short term, while saying he wanted to phase it out gradually in the long term.
I seriously doubt that to be the case
Thank you for the info
There are still some vehicles that want 100 octane without alcohol but get your point.
Start raising hell or at least find local stations that will still carry usable gas
Those are two different things. Alcohol raises the octane rating, and is itself higher octane. However, it may deteriorate non-metallic fuel lines not formulated for alcohol, fuels with alcohol added may gum things up, etc. We had a lot of trouble with the latter with our Mazda MPV. The fuel filter in the tank would gum (”varnish”? up. That zapped us high up on a mountain on the Cherohala Skyway, one time, right at sunset. At least we had a nice view as I pulled the in-tank fuel filter!
It’s usually not so much the engine itself as fuel system components ahead of the engine.
I did not know Costco premium was not contaminated with ethanol. Thanks for the tip.
Probably had farm plates on both.
Its almost like they don’t give a shit no matter who is in charge
I have to run premium in my car and my old V10 Dodge runs like crap on anything below 90 (I dont drive it much so generally run ethanol free 90 in it and pay the extra .50)
Car mileage has dropped about 15-20% the last several weeks and I keep it very well maintained and been suspicious about what is up lately
Yess’r. white, a double temperature bonus in the the Southern states.
Got it for the safety features,(saved us a few times), stayed for the longevity. Good maintenance+ list.
OK with oil so far, change frequently.
sad thing is newer OB’s can’t get the v6. my 2017 feels like it has jet assist, afterburner.
I tried the 15% ethanol for a while. I was filling up more often.
I didn’t see it in search either, or my gas station for that matter.
Mine is about eight years old. I guess they switched.
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