As far as knowing if it has 10% ETOH or not, anytime I don’t see a sign either way I assume it has it. However, I know of 3 gas stations in my area (Eau Claire) that have signs on their premium pumps that the premium is indeed ethanol free. I have talked to the attendants, and it is certainly possible that I (the public) is being lied to by the corporate office… But if there is a sign that clearly states “ETHANOL FREE”, I certainly hope that I can believe it.
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You also support an American industry. It pollutes a little less, it gives people (where I live) jobs and it keeps your fuel system clean.
To further the point, if you’re looking for a pheasant or deer hunting spot, it might be to your advantage to have a giant E85 sticker on the back of your truck, at least around my area!
I totally understand this point, and I realize why farmers, etc support it as being an American product… The following is probably an incorrect fact, but I once read that it takes 0.8 gallons of diesel or the equivalent BTU’s to manufacture 1 gallon of ethanol. If this is true, ethanol just doesn’t make much sense. We pay for 0.8 gallons of foreign oil to make 1 gallon of an “American Product”… I don’t see how an end total of 1.8 gallons of an ethanol/gas pollutes less than 1 gallon of gas. Like I said, the numbers in the above example are probably incorrect (depending on who you ask… I’m sure you get two stories when you talk to the farmers vs the oil corporations)…. But you still burn a lot of energy to produce it, and then you again burn your end product… This is once side of it… Obviously American jobs, farmers, etc are extremely important…. I don’t know enough about the subject to know where the balance lies. Continued improvement in alternate fuels is certainly a necessity….
As far as pheasant hunting, if the farmers keep plowing under the CRP lands to make more corn fields, there won’t be any more pheasant left to hunt anyway. (Or ducks, or deer, or whatever uses grasslands, wetlands, etc…) Pollution, fertilizer runnoff, floods, etc will exponentially increase. The newer grassland-based ethanol production methods look more promising than corn-based products, and it’s way better for the environment, pollution control, wildlife, etc… Potentially still creates/keeps American jobs, and is less taxing on the environment. Maybe a better option than corn???? Again, I’m no expert and probably don’t have my facts straight.. Don’t blast me for this post, I freely admit I could be wrong.
I guess I just don’t know enough about it to understand ethanol. They built a huge plant in S. MN by Fairmont… I think it was open a couple of years and then closed down. (?) Ouch. Maybe they could re-open as a vodka distillery… Of course, I’m no expert, and my facts could very well be (and probably are) incorrect.