Concern Raising Over Increase in Ethanol Percentage

We’re all environmentally conscious now, you know, it used to kinda be a fringe thing, and now it's kinda universal and I think that's great,” says Uptown Charlotte Resident Emily Roche.
What Roche thinks is great are the changes that could be coming at the pump.

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved increasing the amount of ethanol in regular unleaded gasoline to 15 percent.

But Roche admits she doesn't really know much about ethanol..

“Undoubtedly, I think there will be a lot of confusion, I mean there's a lot of confusion about ethanol in general, and this new ethanol is just gonna make things worse,” she says.

Most gasoline is already 10 percent ethanol.

But because it’s highly corrosive, the new 15 percent blends are only approved for cars made in 2007 or later.

And it's this confusion that has AAA warning that consumers could get confused and put the wrong gas in their car.

“That stuff’s gonna corrode the engines and stuff because old cars are not built to run offa ethanol gas like new ones, like the new cars they're coming out with,” says North Charlotte Resident Mo Flo.

And they say drivers can expect to get lower fuel economy with E15.

“We can definitely go green using ethanol gas but it's such an expensive cost to produce it,” Flo says.

That’s the other thing consumers worry about – rising food prices.

“I might need to start growin’ corn you know what I’m saying because there's gonna be a shortage of it around here, bein’ the fact they’re gonna use a lot of it for ethanol gas,” he says.

An impact many people still aren’t sure of.