#E10

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge today by major automakers and other groups to reverse the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision regarding E15 fuel.

AutoGuide’s regular “Under the Hood” segment has already explained the vagaries of octane and the advantages of Top Tier gasoline, but there’s so much more to fuel than that. Ethanol, for instance, is a major component of gas, and something that’s a potential peril for consumers. But what is ethanol? And what is E85? Should you run these fuels in your vehicle?

While motorists in North America have had 10 percent ethanol infused gasoline all but forced on them, and Brazil operates almost entirely on E85 biofuel, German motorists have slammed the door shut on the corn-based fuel by simply refusing to purchase gasoline that is made up of 90 percent dino-juice and 10 percent ethanol.

The EPA will announce Friday that it has approved the use of E15 gasoline for vehicles made after the year 2000. The EPA previously approved the added ethanol content for vehicles made after 2007 – the new regulations would see the amount of vehicles able to use E15 grow exponentially, and directly benefit American corn farmers, whose crop is used in the production of ethanol.