[pallis]

It’s a leftist policy, and it has a large, heavily subsidized constituency, so don’t expect ethanol polluted gasoline to go away anytime soon.

[Cboldt]

EPA mandates for clean emissions require some sort of oxegenate in the fuel. MTBE eneded up being a political nightmare with each contamination event (stuff tastes like turpentine, but isn't all that harmful), and ethanol is next in line.