mellow yellow

if you live in charm city or the surrounding areas, you may have noticed a change in your fuel. or maybe you didn't notice since it won't affect the performance of your car. basically, the epa has identified certain areas (usually urban centers or coridors between major cities) that must use fuel meeting a higher air quality standard than the fuel used in... say... small town lex vegas. we call this "rfg" or reformulated gasoline. in the past, fuel suppliers were using an additive called mtbe, but have since switched to ethanol for a number of reasons. all you need to know is that ethonol burns cleaner, is less toxic to the environment, is a renewable fuel (usually made from corn, so we can just keep growing more!) and is domestically produced (though we're getting some from brazil right now too). a 10% blend of ethanol (or E-10) has been approved for use in all vehicles, so you don't have to make any modifications to your car. pretty seemless transition, eh? you may have seen the "live green go yellow" ads gm has been airing. these vehicles can run on a higher concentration of ethanol (E-85) and therefore do a lot for our environment, our farmers, and our energy independence.