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What to know about E15 gas before filling up your tank

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried is taking action to lower the price at the pump by allowing winter-blend E15 gas to be sold in the summer.

The savings are significant but the option of purchasing the blend of gasoline and ethanol is not available to all drivers.

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According to Growth Energy, only 185 gas stations in Florida carry E15, barely more than once percent of all gas stations in the state.

Fried said in a news conference Wednesday her actions will save Floridians roughly 10 cents on the gallon.

“Which will help add up to real savings for many of our Florida families,” she said.

“This fuel is not really for everyone,” said Mark Jenkins, a spokesperson with AAA. " I mean, you have to have a vehicle that’s a 2001 or newer.”

Additionally, the fuel is about 2% less efficient, on average, compared to gasoline.

“So, you might be back at the pump much sooner than you think,” Jenkins said.

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Gifford Briggs with the American Petroleum Institute said he is skeptical that increasing the availability of E15 will have any impact on the price of more common gas types.

“There’s way too many other factors that impact the gas prices to think that the limited supply of E15 is going to impact it in a meaningful way,” Briggs said.

In addition, Briggs said there is a reason why E15′s winter blend is cheaper than the summer blend: It is worse for the environment.

“Continuing to use the winter blend in the summertime will, you know, have a comparatively larger impact on the environment than... if you were using just regular summer E15,” Briggs said.

Whether or not all Florida drivers see savings at the pump from Fried’s waiver of the restriction on winter-blend E15, they will see a 25-cent per gallon reduction in prices for the entire month of October during this year’s gas tax holiday.