On 2010-10-08, SMS wrote:

In Northern California, the Arco gasoline is Shell gasoline. Arco has no
refinery in Northern California and all their fuel comes from Shell.

I know not where in NorCal you are, but in SFBA, that is not the case.
In fact, the San Jose Mercury did a whole Sunday issue on how gas was
distributed in the SFBA. It all comes from the same place, refineries
about 40 mi N of where I lived, all originating through the same
pipeline. Each brand has diff additives injected into the main
pipeline, but it's all the same base. As the base gas moved past a
certain point, tens of thousands of gals at a time, additives were
injected. Over the entire length of the pipeling, several brands were
being pumped at the same time, the intermingling between 2 diff brands
amounting to no more than about 50 gals. As the diff brands of gas
passed different points, valves rerouted them to diff distro stations.
It's all computer controlled split-second timing.

I recall Arco ran very well in my vehicles when it was 10% alcohol.
The Shell station across the street from the Arco station, ran the
worst in my van. Hard to start and pinged like crazy.


In California, the gasoline standards are so strict that there is
essentially no difference between gasoline brands. One Northern
California refinery got in trouble for jacking up the amount of Ethanol
in fuel it was selling to independent stations, even though the Ethanol
percentage was still within the legal limit. Not sure what was not
kosher about doing this, but they had to stop.

That was that whole MTBE fiasco that was pushed by the oil companies
and perpetuated by NAFTA extortion articles. Then Gov Davis tried to
kill MTBE in favor of ethanol, but was stopped cold by the Feds. I'll
not go into it, here, cuz it's some real slimey politics, but Davis
backed down for later concessions beneficial to CA in the future.

nb