Photo: Mobil Station in Irmo, SC

I won’t get into a long spiel or conspiracy theories here.  Ethanol is bad for gas mileage and your wallet.  When running 10% ethanol you’ll see a drop in mileage of 3 to 10 percent.  The upshot is you will give more money for road taxes, the downside is you’ll be giving the oil companies more money for the pleasure.

Lets not forget all the lawn equipment, and marine motors destroyed by this goo-gas.  If this was supposed to reduce the cost of gas, why are the prices so out of whack (just the ethy versus pure gas), the savings need to exceed the up to 10% loss in fuel efficiency by running that garbage through my car.

You need to make sure your manual say you can run 10% ethanol, I haven’t heard of a new gasoline powered automobile that can’t run the stuff but I don’t remember a statement in my lawn mower’s manual that states its ok to run that stuff.  Why I’m not running an electric mower is another story altogether and purely cost based.

I try to fill up with ethanol-free gas whenever I can, I think I’ve run two tanks of the corn gas in my car since I got it in late September, 2008.

I won’t get into the politics of the situation, I’ll only say that using corn for ethanol isn’t particularly efficient there are more environmentally friendly ways to produce alcohol.

I want to make a map of all the ethy free stations in the area, if you know of any please post in the comments and when I make the map I’ll add you to the credits if you like.  I have the Irmo Mobile station, and the Columbia Travel center already.

Don’t be shy, post a comment!

Kacey Green 
for the Midlands Hybrid Club
"Choose green personal transportation."

The Midlands Hybrid Club, is the home of the hybrid and hypermiling club of the Carolinas, based in Columbia, SC

My fuel economy, tracked at every fill-up since purchase, your mileage will vary.