Gas Stations Without Ethanol in California

A gallon of pure ethanol contains 70% of the energy of a gallon of gasoline. E10 (10% ethanol fuel) therefore has 97% of the energy of a gallon of pure gasoline. So if you could find pure gasoline your MPGs would increase 3%.

Ethanol reduces air pollution and reduces carbon deposits inside the engine by promoting cleaner burning. These are good things and well worth a 3% hit on MPGs.

 

Does this mean some states sell 100% pure gasoline and some sell X% ethanol gasoline? Interesting. I thought all states sold 10% ethanol.

 

When I use ethanol, my mpg's drop from 45 to 39, sometimes down to 37. That is more than a 10% drop in mpg's.

 

Try using E10 consistently. If you buy it only now and then it may be that the ethanol is picking up water in your tank or cleaning gunk out of the injectors.

 

I think pretty much all of California has oxygenated fuel, which these days means ethanol.

 

Growing up in Iowa, I have been using Ethanol religiously, since it was first know as Gasahol clear back in the 1970's. But now I'm not so sure about it, since for the first time I have continous mpg feedback in the Prius.

Today, went to a Shell station in LaVerne, CA and filled up (only needed 5 gallons) $1.99 per gallon, 87 octane. Averaging 51 mpg for the last 30 miles since filling it at noon. Increase is night and day different. I can't really explain it though. I checked my tire pressure again today and all 4 are at 46 psi which is where I like to run them.

 

Up here, Cenex has three blends of ethanol, 10%, 20%, and E 85

 

To the OP, I think it'd be hard to find. While looking for another web page, I found Frequently Asked Questions about the California Reformulated Gasoline Program.

Here we go. I found the page I was looking for at http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/gasoline/types_of_gasoline.html. It was formerly at http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/types_of_gasoline.html.

 

I get great mileage when I first fill my car. The consumption is reset, the engine is hot so there is no warm up. It settles after a couple of days.
I did a long trip over the weekend where my last refill was E10 but all other fills were normal unleaded, my consumption for the second last refill was 5.5L/100km and I have done 100km on the current tank and it is now reading 5.5L/100km.

 

Forgive me if I missed this, but is CA still planning on moving from 5.7% to 10% ethanol by the end of 2009? I think that bill was passed back in mid-2007. Just curious if recent events changed this in any way.

 

Looks like priuschat does what it does best, not answer your question. Two pages of posts and not a single answer to your question.

 

And there's another non answer.... oh and this is another.

Actually, I'm going to give you the answer, since it's obvious:

No, nobody here knows.

 

[ill-conceived attempt at humor deleted]

 

No, California is mandated by CARR to have oxygenated fuel and the only approved additive is ethanol. You cannot buy gas in CA without it.

 

"California does not have a mandatory ethanol blending law, but it should because ethanol is already in all of the gasoline in the state. The California Air Resources Board has an agreement with the EPA to blend ethanol into all of the gasoline in California at the 5.7% level. That level has been changed by a California law that allows the distributors to go to E10 by 2010 and they surely will for the economic benefit to them."
Ethanol Free Premium Coalition

 

You are dead right, as long as you can't read. Did you read post 10?

Now there is another 2 posts in this thread, including yours that has failed to answer the OP.

 

:focus: This website that might help answer the question: Find ethanol free gas near you! If you select CA there are less than a half dozen stations listed. Oregon has a lot more places listed than CA.

I was just driving Highway 42 in Oregon after Christmas 2010, the city was either Tenmile or Winston OR. Saw a poorly hand painted sign the said "Straight Gas" in this very small town. The price was 60 cents more per gallon. I should have tried it to see what the difference is. Now I'm back in CA and can't find straight gas.

So almost 2 years later, after this thread started, and there are more cracks forming around the politics of Ethanol. Al Gore has come out against Ethanol recently:

Al Gore's mea culpa for corn ethanol support - U.S. news - Environment - msnbc.com

"First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small," he (Al Gore) said, referring to how much energy is produced in the process.

The U.S. ethanol industry will consume about 41 percent of the U.S. corn crop this year, or 15 percent of the global corn crop, according to Goldman Sachs analysts.

I am still convinced my Prius gets 10 or 15% less mpg in my with E10 ethanol, now consider it takes energy to grow the corn and produce the ethanol. We are using more energy that we are getting.

Burning our food/corn as gasoline in automobiles just doesn't sound right. The price of land has gone from $4000/acre to $10,000/acre in some cases in the Midwest in the last few years.

 

Those appear to be marinas instead of road vehicle stations. I know of a gas station near here that pumps race gas (for off road use only ) that is also ethanol free. It isn't on that list. The list is suspect.