Florida is the latest, and perhaps the last, mandatory E10 state. In fact it is not clear why it gave corporate welfare to the ethanol industry when it did not have to. EISA 2007 had already passed before the Florida law was enacted and Florida was going to get ethanol in all of its gasoline anyway. The Florida mandatory E10 law is HB 7135, another of the all encompassing energy policy laws that throws taxpayer money at "green" companies. The mandatory E10 legislation is a small part of the bill, Sections 101 - 107, but it will be overshadowed by EISA 2007 before it becomes mandatory on December 31, 2010.
The exemptions are in Section 103 (3) and include aircraft, watercraft, collector vehicles, off road vehicles, motorcycles or small engines. The exemption does not specify a grade of gasoline nor does it specify how the unblended gasoline is to be made available.
One good rule in the Florida law is in Section 104 where terminals are exempted from having to blend ethanol if it becomes more expensive than gasoline, which is highly likely. Ethanol is now more expensive than gasoline, it will be interesting to see if Florida terminals stop blending.
Every mandatory E10 state has exemptions to their blending law, because there are a number of piston engine applications that should not, and some that cannot, use ethanol blended gasoline. Unfortunately the exemptions are not uniform. They vary from only one exemption in Washington, aircraft, to a universal exemption of premium unleaded in Missouri. All states exempt aircraft usage, but most states like Oregon and Washington make it almost impossible to get unblended gasoline. Oregon is the only state that allows for unblended regular and premium gasoline for the exemptions, and then makes it almost impossible to get any unblended gasoline. All other mandatory ethanol states just allow clear premium unleaded gasoline for the exempted classes.
The following piston engine applications should not use ethanol blended gasoline:
We are looking for people willing to work on legislation in each state to prohibit the blending of ethanol into premium unleaded gasoline and requiring the accurate labeling of pumps that dispense ethanol.
If you are interested in supporting the Coalition please email us, or use the contact button above, and we will add your name in the state list below. You will be able to contact others in your state with a similar interest.
If you need information, with references, in order to frame arguments against ethanol blending, use these Talking Points.