Sorry, I disagree on Ethanol.... If its ETHANOL over MBTE... I'll take Ethonol every time... MTBE is an ecological nightmare that the EPA forced on america and now we have groundwater all over the united states that is poison thanks to the tree huggers.
As to the EPA making it impossible to build refineries, I agree that crap has to stop.
However the current run up has nothing to do with either of these issues, its just pure and simple futures manipulation at the corp of this one.
Ethanol is bad for the following reasons:
1 - Ethanol lowers engine performance, leading to lower mileage and increased usage of more expensive gasoline.
2 - Ethanol is more costly to produce.
3 - Ethanol is more corrosive than regular gasoline, leading to damage to gas tanks, carburators, etc. especially in older cars.
4 - Ethanol burns dirtier, actually increasing smog.
Most cars built in the last ten years have cleaner burning engines that adjust the fuel-air mixture to reduce emissions, so these additives like MTBE are completely unnecessary in the first place, but the envirowackos will not hear of anything that counters their chicken-little activism.