EPA says you must buy Four gallons of gas minimum!

[TheIVJackal]

Did you guys read about this? I'm all for regulation but sometimes it goes a little too far and I think that in this case, it has... Thoughts?
EPA Four Gallon Mandate
- Aaron

[Frank Lee]

It's not regulation for regulation's sake; it's to keep the next customer from an E15 customer from getting more ethanol percentage than they want/need. That part is simple but what to do about it is less so. Seems to me the <4 gallon purchaser has a choice: stick with a non-blender pump (I suppose at a busy station that could be a problem but otherwise not) or just use the blender pump and accept that you might end up with more than 10% ethanol in your purchase. I've not seen it but I don't think the pump or the station will make you pay for four gallons if you've pumped less than that.

You'd think it technologically possible to make a blender pump that doesn't contain residue from the prior purchase but evidently that's not where we're at.

http://www.jsonline.com/business/4ga...170272246.html

[serialk11r]

I don't really understand the point of this, if E15 were dispensed from some nozzle, then that nozzle has some E15 residue in it...that has greater than 10% ethanol. The next person buying E10 will get more than 10% ethanol by default. So what are they decreeing as the maximum amount you can go over 10%? Seems totally arbitrary to me.

[ksa8907]

Band-aid on a gunshot wound.

Too bad they didn't come up with an intelligent solution.

[Lazarus]

So what do you do when your tank only holds 3 gallons or less?

[Phantom]

You do not solve an engineering problem with regulation. The simple solution to fix that issue is have the pump mix the fuel at the pump handle to get the mix you want. It would work like this have two hoses running to the handle actually to a connector just before the handle. The larger hose has its standard e10 the smaller hose has e85 the user asks for e15 have the pump do the calculations for how many GPM the pump for each hose needs to flow. That way the only extra amount of e15 that someone might get is the 1-3oz that would be in the mixing connector just before the handle.

Do they take the same conisderation for cars that have to use high octane? If a turbocharged motorcycle with a 3 gal tank needs 93 but the last person got 87 then the resulting octane could not be 93.

[TheIVJackal]

The Motorcyclist are the most annoyed about this as many of their tanks do not have a four gallon capacity.
Phantom, I don't think you can apply the same logic to differences in octane, two different animals there.

[Ryland]

I don't feel like the first link did a good job at all of explaining what was going on but instead was trying to inflict panic and anger without informing anyone.
There are also already pumps dedicated to E-85 so why not have the E-15 and the E-85 be the same pump? because the issue comes up when you are trying to dispense to many types of fuel from the same hose.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by ksa8907

Band-aid on a gunshot wound.

Too bad they didn't come up with an intelligent solution.

Such as?

[redpoint5]

The intelligent solution is to not mandate E15 at all. Let the station owners decide if they want to sell E15, and run it on a dedicated pump. Further, E10 should not be required, but be an option that stations and consumers can choose for their vehicles.

E15 cannot be required because many cars are not designed to run on greater than E10 as stated by the owners manual, my TSX included. There is no chance of the EPA passing this mandate, so no reason to worry about it.

I'd really like to see either the EPA, or CARB go away; preferrably CARB.