Why is 100% gas more expensive in the city?

[TurboFiat124]

I live in Kingsport TN. which is a average size city (~50,000 people) and 100% gasoline is like $1.00 more per gallon over E10 but just across the state line in rural SW Virginia, 100% gasoline is like 20 cents more per gallon over E10.

So I typically drive over there maybe 3 times a year and buy about 30 gallons at a time for my lawnmowers, my Trabant and my other 2 cycle engines. I know it's only 5 miles from my house, I just have no other reason to drive over there!

Being that Kingsport produces so many hydrocarbons from factories, they made some deal with the EPA where they dropped the speed limit down from 70 to 65 mph on I-26 and I-81 that intersect through Sullivan county (from Southern Justice fame on NGC). They said that way they will not impose emission testings on cars. Excuse me but if the factories are the ones doing all the polluting, then why make car owner's pay the price for emission testing?

I'm wondering if the extra cost for 100% gas is some sort of carbon tax. Where in SW Virginia is considered rural.

Typically the price of E10 in Virginia and Tennessee are about the same.

 

[tomcat27]

it sure sounds like it. I know in many metro areas the EPA requires seasonally different mixtures of fuel (in the summer) for cleaner air - and its always more expensive

 

[hatt]

E0 is a specialty product. It just depends on what people want to sell it for in your area. I buy E0 in Sevierville all the time. Normally $.20-.30 more than E10. There was a guy in Cosby selling E0 for almost the same price as E10. Sadly that store closed down.

 

[Spector]

Here in Chattanooga 100% gas is 30 cents per gal more than E10. This is the 87 octane It was 20 cents several months ago but now sticking at 30. Just about at the break even point for me on better fuel mileage versus cost.

 

[TiredTrucker]

You mention one state to the other. State taxes on fuel can vary quite a bit. Only Federal taxes remain constant per gallon. And when it comes to ethanol, the game is played a little more loosely than just comparing gas prices. While E0 gas can be sold in the majority of the country, it isn't, and when it is, then states use it as a cash cow, playing on the people who prefer it over E10. Kind of a way to get people to use more E10 and line the state piggy bank all in one shot. On the market right now, there is very little price difference between gas and ethanol, it just swings back and forth seasonally. CME market price for gas today is running around $1.32. Ethanol is running around $1.42. More demand in summers by major metro areas, so ethanol running a little higher than gas right now. Yet states cash in on the desire for ethanol free gas, and charge higher local and state taxes on it so the price is higher than E10. Any complaints you have, they rest solely on your hired help in your state capitol.