A day and a half after I briefly mentioned mandated gasoline blend variety as a burden on gas prices, Reuters reports on a fuel shortage on the eastern seaboard as a result of switching to another gasoline blend.

Dozens of gasoline stations from Virginia to Massachusetts ran short of fuel on Friday as suppliers struggled with a transition to a new anti-smog gasoline blend using corn-based ethanol as an additive, marketers said.

(paragraph removed for brevity)

“The situation here is chaotic,” said Mike O’Connor, president of the Virginia Petroleum Jobbers Association, which represents gas stations in the state. He said his association is seeking a federal waiver to allow the sale of lower grade gasoline to ease the crunch.

I hope the waiver isn’t granted, not because I’m mean and nasty, but because we need to feel the consequences of the laws we pass.

Later on in the article we’re hit with a lesson from college chemistry class:

The problem with the replacement additive, experts say, is that ethanol cannot be shipped in pipelines because it absorbs water condensation in the pipes, and requires trucks, rail cars or barges for transport.

Ethanol mixes with water to form an azeotrope. Azeotropes aren’t easily separated into their components like oil and water, nor can one boil the alcohol away and leave the water.

This is an interesting circumstance: a fuel additive designed to reduce gasoline usage requires the increased consumption of gasoline to transport it to filling stations.