Ethanol Blends Now Sold as Gasoline in MO and KS

Customers are being fooled into thinking they are buying gasoline when, in fact, they are purchasing E-10, which contains 10 percent reduced-energy ethanol. The practice has been launched since E-10 has recently become cheaper than gasoline.

Unlike most states, Missouri and Kansas don’t make retailers disclose when ethanol is being sold. Though E-10 doesn’t harm most vehicles and power equipment such as lawn mowers, it can affect mileage because it has about 3.5 percent less energy than an equivalent amount of gasoline.

“I would really prefer to know,” said one area consumer, Charles Kigar of Overland Park.

But the shift is good news for the ethanol industry, which has struggled in part because it lost its price advantage last fall. Gas prices have risen much faster than ethanol’s recently, giving the advantage back.

Sneaky, eh?