Here’s what you need to know about E15.

What is E15 fuel and can it be used by all vehicles?

E15 is a mixture of regular gasoline and less ethanol, a vegetable fuel typically made from corn in the United States. “15” in the name means it contains 15% ethanol. Even regular gasoline usually has up to 10% ethanol mixture (E10), so E15 is just more biofuel in your gas. The rationale behind Biden’s mandate is that gas that requires less crude oil – which is very expensive right now – could help reduce high gas prices. The E15 is safe for most cars built in 2001 or later, and most car companies say it is OK to use. However, some car manufacturers recommend that you do not use it on certain models. To be absolutely sure, GasBuddy’s head of oil analysis Patrick De Haan said car owners should consult their owner’s manuals before filling out the E15, especially to make sure you do not do anything that can cancel your car warranty later. Other gas-powered things the E15 cannot use, according to the Ministry of Energy: Motorcycles, heavy vehicles, boats, snowmobiles, chainsaws and petrol-powered lawn mowers. And if you have a passenger car built before 2001, you should not use the E15 in it.

How much cheaper will E15 gas be?

The Biden government estimates that gas prices will be on average about 10 cents cheaper after the EPA withdrew from the E15 in the summer months. “The E15 is about 10 cents cheaper per gallon than the E10. Some gas stations offer an even bigger discount than that,” Biden told a news conference in Iowa, a state that prides itself on ethanol production. “But many of the gas stations that sell it … have to stop selling it in the summer,” Biden continued. “But with this discharge, on June 1, you will not show up and see a bag over the pump with the cheapest gas. You will be able to keep filling up with E15 and it will solve a whole lot of problems.” De Haan estimated that the realistic savings in the pump could range from 5-10 cents. This may not be enough to deal with the sharp rise in gas prices that have been slow to decline even when the price of crude has fallen. But even if it is not a real relief, De Haan stressed that every now and then can help consumers.
“It’s something,” he said. “Everyone will be different and I think most Americans will fool around with 5 to 10 cents, but it’s a real saving. I will not feel much relief, but it is another option and it is good to have options.” Filling the car from empty to full, drivers could look for total savings of 45 cents to $ 1 for small cars with small gas tanks. For larger vehicles, the savings can be around $ 2 or $ 3.

Is E15 gas as efficient as normal?

In short: your mileage may vary. E15 gas contains slightly less energy than standard E10 gasoline, according to a 2009 study by the federal government. This means you will have slightly lower fuel economy with the E15, which means you may need to refuel more often. But De Haan said the impact was unlikely to be significant. “Because there is only a 5% increase in the concentration of ethanol in gasoline, there is essentially a negligible blow to the kilometers,” De Haan said. “There is slightly less energy content. The things that could overcome the difference are things like the weather, the wind, the speed that the consumer drives.”

Why is E15 usually banned in the summer?

E15 is intended to be a cleaner form of gasoline because it contains biofuel – which is considered “carbon neutral” – and burns cleaner than 100% gasoline. But its use actually creates more air pollution at ground level. Ethanol is essentially alcohol – and because alcohol evaporates faster, adding more ethanol to gasoline makes the fuel evaporate faster. Thus, when gasoline is mixed with ethanol, the resulting fuel becomes more volatile, evaporates more easily, and these evaporated particles react with sunlight to create smog, a dangerous form of air pollution. This is why the EPA imposed a summer ban on E15, thinking it would be more heat and sunlight = more evaporation = more smog. “When the gas is exposed to sunlight, especially in the summer months, it turns into ozone smog,” said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity.

How bad is E15 for air pollution and health?

Groundwater smog contains ozone, which is a major health concern. Breathing ozone is harmful to anyone, but especially harmful to the elderly, people with asthma or other respiratory illnesses, and people who work hard outdoors and are exposed to more exposure. Becker told CNN that most ozone smog is particularly bad for childhood asthma.
“This is a bad result for health and the environment,” Becker said. “It means that the ethanol lobby will be happy and children with asthma will be sicker.” Here are some of the effects of ozone depletion, according to the EPA and the CDC:

Cough and scratches in the throat Difficulty in deep breathing Inflammatory, damaged airways Higher susceptibility to infections It worsens things like asthma, bronchitis and emphysema

Has this been done before?

E15 was legal all year until 2011, when the EPA moved to ban it in the summer. The Biden administration also reiterates a move by the Trump administration to waive the E15 rule in 2019. Trump’s move by the EPA was later blocked by a panel of federal judges.
Biden officials told reporters that this was a response to a state of emergency. Biden’s announcement, a senior government official said, “differs” from his predecessor’s efforts to expand ethanol sales, as it “is based on the current situation, which is an emergency for the supply of fuel”. CNN’s Donald Jade contributed to this report.