Maine has long been the home of many lawn mowers, chain saws, outboard motors, jet skis, snow mobiles, automobiles and other gas powered devices.

In the southern part of Maine it has been illegal to sell ethanol free gas except for airplanes and race cars. This law was perhaps well-intentioned by environmentalists who thought it might be a way to burn less oil. But it turned out that it took more oil to grow the corn (from which ethanol is made) and produce the ethanol than it saved. And of course the corn growers loved the huge market for their product and they had a large self-serving corn-lobbying group to keep the ethanol requirement.

But ethanol was destroying the engines we in Maine depended on by converting the gas in the engine, over long storage time such as winter, into a varnish like substance. Ethanol destroyed carburetors. And ethanol ate up rubber hoses and gaskets.

The Maine legislature has considered these issues and as of November 1, 2020 ethanol gas is no longer required to be sold by gas stations and boat yards in any part of Maine!

The conversion is optional for each seller of gasoline, but we now have a chance to put pure gasoline into our engines.

For sellers of gasoline who continue to sell ethanol-infected gasoline, we can vote with our feet and wallets and buy from those who switch over to ethanol-free!