[okie01]

No gasoline is sold without ethanol added to it.

Not true.

Oxygenated fuel is required only within metro areas with persistent air quality problems (which, in fact, amounts to just about every metro area in the country...according to the EPA).

However, rural areas beyond the bounds of the metro areas are not required to use oxygenated fuels. If those rural areas draw their gasoline from terminals located within the metro area, they may or may not receive ethanol in their gasoline -- depending upon the distributor's policy.

However, if they draw from terminals outside the metro area, there will be no ethanol added.

For example, whenever I drive from the small town in Texas where I live (in the DFW metro area), thru Western Oklahoma up to Western Kansas to visit family, the gasoline I buy in Clinton, OK (e.g.) and Hays, KS will not contain ethanol.

And I will get 15% better gas mileage from those tanks...

[Eye of Unk]

Fairbanks and Anchorage were the cities that tried using oxygenated fuels back around 1993, caused way too many problems back then. It can be absolutely terrible when you have hundreds of idling cars in th edead of winter running, even at stoplights it creates a mass of moisture laden fog in sub zero temps.

They think 02 enriched fuel will solve that, only made for people having their engines die in minus 40 temps and they themselves dying. That happened some years ago, a whole family froze to death, because of bad fuel.

[TYVets]

Our daughter has a brother in law that bought a Flex Fuel (E-85) pick up.

They were talking about mileage and she suggested he use regular gas, not E-85. He lives in the St Louis area and I assume he can only buy oxygenated fuel.

He started using regular gasoline and got 25% higher mileage. I ask her to repeat that number and she said 25% is what he told me.

I ask the local GM service manager about that big increase in mileage. He told me that "GM says 30% better mileage for a Flex Fuel (E-85) vehicles when the owner switches to regular gas".

okie01: I live in a rural area, my mileage increased 11% when I stopped using gasoline that contains 10% ethanol (E-10) and went to gasoline that does not contain any ethanol. Same highway, same driving style.

[thackney]

Oxygenated fuel is required only within metro areas with persistent air quality problems

That is only part of the federal EPA requirement. Some states also require Oxygenated fuel.

In addition, the Renewable Fuel Standard requires a level of total percentage of the total gasoline used in the US. Although the metro area and state requirement contribute towards meeting this goal, it does not fulfill it. That forces companies to also add ethanol to their gasoline outside the metro areas or be fined.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-01-09/pdf/2011-33451.pdf

There still are locations without ethanol, but it is not all areas outside large metros.

[Brett66]

I set my MPG tracker on my car and compared results with a tank of E85 and a tank of 100% gas, I got similar results.

The savings in gas range easily trumps the lower cost of E85, 100% gas saves you money!

[Nitehawk0325]

Thanks for educating me Okie. I was unaware have been told otherwise. I’ll keep buying in small town a top priority.