Go here to find a station that sells E0 (0% ethanol) gasoline...
www.pure-gas.org
It takes 1.5 gallons of ethanol to equal the energy in 1 gallon of gasoline. Ethanol oxygenates the fuel and tips the oxygen reading on the 02 sensor so that the "system" thinks it is running lean and enrichens the mixture. The combination of these two factors makes many see less fuel mileage - usually up to 10%. My '97 toyota 4runner would drop from 15mpg all around to 13.5 mpg all around when winter fuel kicked in. 10%.
Make me pay for 10% ethanol and then reduce my fuel mileage by 10% - that's a big winner. Tell me how that one reduces our dependence on foreign oil?
Oregon has an initiative process here - I am going to talk to my local state senator, a neighbor of mine, and work to get a initiative on an upcoming ballot that will outlaw ethanol in premium gas here in oregon so we have a choice. I think you need 15k signatures. They changed the law to allow some premium to be sold without ethanol - the original sponsor of the bill that made e10 mandatory in Oregon owned a prius and her mileage went to crap when she started running the blend - so she was for a modification of the mandate to allow for E0 premium in some locations.
I want to get an initiative on the ballot just to see how much the ethanol energy consortium will throw at it to defeat it...
Even Al Gore now says Ethanol was a mistake in terms of being green - he admitted that he was "for it" because the first Presidential Primary was in Iowa.... Jerk....
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art...ke_108085.html
One advantage of switching to a big diesel - I don't have to deal with the crap any more.
This summer Mazda is introducing a high tech and highly efficient turbo diesel for their auto line - it is called Sky-D -> My wife will be driving one of those after they shake the kinks out of it...
jeff