E10 will spread throughout Idaho by the end of 2009. Since their next door neighbors, Oregon and Washington are mandatory ethanol states, the terminals are taking the state of Idaho and Montana E10 to meet EISA 2007 mandates. The panhandle of Idaho is almost all E10, because they get most of their gasoline from terminals in Spokane, WA which have converted to E10 to meet the Washington ethanol mandate. Midstate Idaho around Lewiston is going all E10 because the Pasco, WA terminal has converted to all E10 to supply southeast WA and northeast Oregon. The main Boise terminal will convert next to take advantage of the federal blending credit and then the whole system in eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and everything supplied by the Boise terminal can go suboctane saving the oil companies even more money. When that happens, there will be no unblended 91+ AKI premium unleaded in the area.
Idaho has flirted with mandatory E10 laws in the past, most recently in 2006. But, without a mandatory law and exemptions there is no requirement that any clear unleaded gasoline be available for aircraft, watercraft, etc. and there is no requirement that pumps be labeled as to ethanol content of the product being delivered.
We are looking for volunteers in the state of Idaho to introduce legislation and work with the Idaho Aviation Association to prohibit the blending of ethanol into premium unleaded gasoline.
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.