Question: On June 25 we bought gas without ethanol at a station on the Big Island between the Honokohau Boat Harbor and Kona Airport for 50 cents a gallon cheaper than gasoline with ethanol. Where on Oahu can I buy gasoline without ethanol? I would drive a long way to save 50 cents a gallon.
Answer: The state does not track where ethanol-free gasoline is sold, but there is a private website, pure-gas.org, that lists ethanol-free gas stations in the United States and Canada.
For Hawaii — pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=HI — 13 stations are listed, seven on Oahu. However, the website relies on online users to update information, and prices are not available for most of the stations.
The Oahu stations are Keehi Marine Center, 24 Sand Island Access Road; Magic Island Petroleum (“The Fuel Dock”), 1651 Ala Moana Blvd., at Ala Wai Boat Harbor; Heeia Kea Small Boat Harbor — The Deli, 46-499 Kamehameha Highway; Kaneohe Shell Gas Station & Food Mart, 45-1039 Kamehameha Highway; Ko Olina Marina, 92-100 Waipahe Place; Pearl City 76, 826 Kamehameha Highway; and Aloha 7-Eleven Waianae Mauka, 85-830 Farrington Highway.
You may have lucked out finding ethanol-free gasoline at that price.
“Ethanol is almost always cheaper than gasoline … which is one reason that today almost all U.S. gasoline has ethanol in it,” said Maria Tome, an engineer with the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism’s Hawaii State Energy Office.
(The U.S. Energy Information Administration says that gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol, known as E10, now accounts for more than 90 percent of the total U.S. gasoline market.)
Tome said pricing data going back to 2007 show spikes when ethanol was more expensive than gasoline, but that overall it usually costs less.
“Looking ahead, August futures prices for ethanol are currently around $2.50 per gallon, futures prices for gasoline are at $2.75 per gallon,” she said.
Hawaii’s ethanol law requires at least 85 percent of gasoline sold in the state to contain 10 percent ethanol.
That means distributors can deliver up to 15 percent of their gasoline volumes without ethanol, a provision that was added in 2007 to accommodate marine vessels and aircraft, small engines, generators, pumps, etc.
“They (distributors) decide where to make this product available,” Tome said. “The requirement does not specify or restrict in what equipment consumers use the fuel.”
Tome said that if ethanol fuel “was not cost-competitive with gasoline,” the department’s Hawaii Administrative Rules would allow fuel distributors to get an exemption from the requirement of providing gasoline with ethanol.
One intent of the E10 law was to help develop a local biofuels industry to produce ethanol.
However, that hasn’t happened, and all of the ethanol used in the state is imported.
Poles Removed
Hawaiian Electric Co. removed its towering “pole structures” flanking Pali Highway near St. Stephen’s Diocesan Center on Sunday, HECO spokesman Peter Rosegg said.
The poles were installed as a temporary safety measure last summer while HECO replaced two transmission line structures (see is.gd/iCjfY5). That specific work has been completed, Rosegg said.
Auwe
To my neighbors who are too lazy to use their own refuse carts and use my cart whenever it is half-filled. You obviously look into my cart before using yours. When the refuse truck is late or cannot come that day, I am not able to put additional trash in because your trash takes up all the space, plus it soils the cart each time you use it. Also, please review the city’s Residential Refuse Collection rules on its website: www.opala.org/solid_waste/residential_refuse_collection.html. Let’s have some consideration. — Agitated Neighbor
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