Epa Standards And Fuel Economy

[JasonATL]

I live in one of those regions/cities where reformulated gasonline is mandated. It is my understanding that reformulated gas has a negative impact fuel economy. While I don't want to debate the issue of whether the "EPA standard" ends up defeating itself on a net net basis, I do wonder whether the fuel economy that we observe from our 400h's suffers from the reformulated fuels.

My father-in-law has a Highlander Hybrid and gets much better mileage. I wonder what difference in his mileage is due to the fuel he is able to buy vs. the reformulated fuel I can buy here in Atlanta.

I posted now because I just saw that the EPA has suspended certain standards on fuel to aid in keeping fuel supplies/prices stabilized in the wake of Katrina. While I couldn't readily decipher whether reformulated requirements are suspended, I'm hoping that we can use this as an experiment. If reformulated gasoline requirements are suspended for Atlanta and reformulated gasoline is responsible for lower fuel economy, then I should observe higher mileage in the next couple of weeks.

By the way, I don't mean for this to sound "oportunist." My opinion is that fuel economy pales in importance to the impact on people's lives in the affected areas from Katrina. My thoughts are with those recovering. I have already visited and hope others will visit http://www.redcross.org to help in any way possible.