1. The cost of gasoline at some local stations in San Diego seems to be pushing upward steadily. I'd say in the low $1.80s per gallon around where I live for 87 octane, and it can get over $2.00 per gallon for 91 octane.
2. I've been making a point of buying down the street at the local 76 station. I believe now that 76 is part of "Conoco-Phillips" or some such. They have been very clear in their "NO MTBE" signs around here for what seems like about a year. Their signs on their pumps used a wording that said the gasoline *might* contain ethanol, but it was never entirely clear. I chose to hope that they were including ethanol, because I think the other way to get around the Oxygenate rule (reformulated gas) might not be that common and I don't know if it's legal. I have written them to attempt to get a confirmation that they *are* using a 10% or so (or whatever the standard is, to satisfy the oxygenate requirements) mixture, but have received no response. A late-night worker there did respond with confidence that they were, but I can't take that as the final answer. Others may say, "Well, so what, we see ethanol elsewhere all the time." I think it's important. There was a *hellacious* battle to get the oil companies to switch away from MTBE in California, and to get them to consider using ethanol. That battle seems to have gone silent for the last year. Many seem to be still using MTBE, according to some pumps I've seen. If 76 is doing something good (by the standards of ethanol proponents) then we must give them credit and make it clear that we appreciate the lack of runaround on the issue. Too often we wait for bad news or resistance to bring attention to a business. The station I go to charges always within a penny or two of the Shell Station nearby. So, if 76 is using ethanol and incurring the doomsday extra costs that the Refiners claimed would be incurred if they were forced to use ethanol, then it's not showing at the pump, one bit. I haven't heard a peep of complaint from 76 about this, and have seen the very large NO MTBE signs at many (all?) of their stations. Prior to being able to buy this gasoline down the street, which I am assuming has ethanol in it, I had *never* been able to find a single pump in my area that had any ethanol mixed in. So, while others may take such availability for-granted, I think this 76 program is awesome, pending verification that in fact they're using ethanol. I'm still wary on that point. If and when further political decisions and events come to a head, I expect the Oil companies to drag out further anti-ethanol arguments, and it would be nice, at that time, to be able to report that at least one of them has not only been implementing a 10% or so mixture of ethanol in some areas, but is doing so with no customer dissatisfaction as to quality or price, and is still able to do excellent profitable gasoline-selling business, so that many of the arguments are just nonsense. If 76 is really doing this, then I salute them. Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
