Originally Posted By: OilSwag
Well I'm gonna chime in with my 2 cents. Seems some people think all gas is perfect as long as it's 1 of the 100 or whatever Top tier fuels. All things are not equal. Ethanol is not the best thing ever produced and imo the whole ethanol thing is a money making scam forced on us with crazy prices.
There's no such thing as an absolute price to produce anything. When it comes to refining oil, they have to think of the entire picture including gasoline, diesel, kerosene/jet fuel, lubes, and asphalt. No refinery can only make 93 octane E0. In my state it's basically not refined at all, and almost all 91 octane premium requires ethanol. They need to be able to sell all this fuel and without ethanol it makes it a lot more difficult unless an alternate oyxgenate/octane booster can be used.
As for ethanol and price - there basically has to be some sort of oxygenate in order to meet certain emissions standards. On top of that, when the nationwide price of base fuel was averaging around $3/gallon, the price of fuel grade denatured ethanol was less than $2/gallon. If anything, it's lowering the price of fuel. That I'm filling up with fuel containing ethanol is low on my list of things to worry about. My fuel system is sealed, and if there's a leak I have some more serious things to worry about.