I can't remember the last time I went to a gas station and it didn't have a notice that the gas contained some quantity of ethanol. As I understand it, ethanol is harder on my engine than regular gasoline, is a boondoggle in terms of the environmental benefits, and is just a sneaky way for politicians to buy votes from farmers and tree-huggers.

Politics aside, I'd prefer not to use the stuff because I am doing my best to get my car to 200K miles before I consider a new one. Is it even possible to buy non-ethanol gas anymore, or is there some law now requiring all gas stations to have some blend of it?

  • This is a region-specific question. Since this is an international forum, you can't assume your readers are in the same country you are (although the term "gasoline" does give you away :-). For example, you can most certainly still buy ethanol-free petrol in Australia.
    – staticsan
    May 31 '11 at 5:20

There is not a federal law that forces the use of ethanol blends but some states have laws that try to encourage its use and there might be a state that requires it.

Searching online, I see very different opinions about the potential negative effects on your engine from the use of E10. (Mostly on older vehicles as newer vehicles are agreed to handle it correctly). Regardless, I would contact the maker of your vehicle and see if they have a recommendation for your specific make/model/year. If they say it works fine in your car, then you don't have to worry.


There's at least one Web site that tries to catalog stations selling unblended gasoline. Here's one for the U.S. and Canada:


  • They also have an Android app, so you can find it while you're on a roadtrip.
    – Doresoom
    Apr 14 '15 at 19:26

Non-ethanol fuel is supposedly available in nearly all of the USA, just hard to find. There are certain airplane engines that are certified to use automobile grade gasoline as long as it does not contain any ethanol. I hear it's getting harder for them to find the appropriate fuel these days, but that they are still able to get it. Try asking around at your local small airport, ideally one with an EAA club as those are the pilots most likely to have airplanes with engines capable of using automobile grade gas.


Last time I filled up, I noticed that the "regular" pumps had a sticker that said the gas may contain up to 10% ethanol. The "super" pumps did not have a similar sticker, so going with a higher octane gas might be the way to go. This was on the east coast of Canada.

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