ERC,
I guess I did throw the political bait our there. I know better and should not have done so. You wisely and intelligently threw it back untouched. You must be a reasoned and thoughtful person.
If we leave Obama out of this..... (I think he has failed the leadership test, nevermind his policies so I have that on the table. Probably about half of the people in the forum would disagree with me which is what makes this a great country).
Coming from a Corn state I think I can say with some authority that food grain based ethanol is a hoax and a boondoggle for the tax payers. The only people that make out on this are the farmers (think Cargil, ADM etc, not Nora and Fred down the road). The fact that it's use is mandated to the degree that it is, is a testament to a corrupt congress.
Regardless of where you stand politically, the fact is that there is a worldwide grain shortage that is worse than even some analyists know. As bizarre as it may seem, on the side I have been involved in buying corn and soybeans for use in fish food in SE Asia and have gotten some recent lessons in the subject. Because of the shortage there is just not enough to go around. The real problem is that there are not any good substitutes for those grains at present, at least none that are currently available in any quantity. The prices are beyond belief right now and are going to get worse. The bottom line is that most of the world cannot afford the current price which affects the poor people of the world (most of the worlds population) deeply. Because of the mandates to use more ethanol in the US the problem is made much worse. The UN is begging us to help avoid a worldwide food crisis - good short article that explains it
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/10/us-ethanol-united-nations-idUSBRE8790CW20120810We will not budge. We can argue about who controls the USDA (who I think is actually the decision maker here) but the facts remain there is a very real crisis coming and it is not overblown.
Now we have been totally diverted from the initial subject. While I think ethanol is really a bad deal for our country, we do not see much trouble with it on the RE's. In fact maybe no trouble. We seem to see more trouble with specific localities that are using God knows what in the fuel. There is not much gasoline left in gasoline, much of it is chemicals for various uses. Many manufacturers are squawking about E-15 and they may have reason to. I know with 100% certainty that engine/motorcycle manufacturers in Brazil have a lot of trouble adapting their vehicle's to run on that countries high alcohol levels. I guess they can do it but it is tough. I know this first hand from two huge motorcycle manufacturers that I am involved with entering that market.
Answer to the question - Don't worry about the ethanol, it is there and you can do nothing about it. Keep fuel off of your paint.