The Chicago City Council is set to vote on the ordinance this week which would require all gas stations in the city that sell over 850,000 gallons of gas a year to offer E15, according to a report by Chicago's WGN TV. Based on the report. that would translate to some 249 stations in the Windy City. The stations would be given a year to install E15 pumps and grants have been made available for the stations. 

Should Chicago proceed with the proposal, it would mark a milestone in efforts to make E15 the new regular. While it will replace the mid-grade fuel at gas stations, it's price advantage over 87 octane-rated E10 at pumps would make it far more attractive to consumers. 

Considering how big of a deal this could be, it's only natural that it has generated plenty of debate and made Chicago the epic center of the latest battle between the ethanol industry and Big Oil.

The oil industry, as expected, is peddling its usual talking points and chief among them is the supposed catastrophic damage E15 will cause vehicles and warranties (It's funny how a car can run smoothly on E10 but will fall apart with just 5 percent more ethanol).

Let's first not forget the extensive amount of testing that was done before the EPA approved the use of E15 in all cars model year 2001 and newer. In fact, the Department of Energy tested E15 over six million miles before the EPA gave its approval.

With regards to warranties for older vehicles, it has to be emphasized that most of those warranties were written before the EPA gave its approval. In other words, if you own a 2011 model, back when your car manual and warranty was written, there was no such thing as E15 and no EPA approval.

So unless your carmaker had the gift of foresight, your carmaker is technically right when it says E15 isn't covered in your warranty as it's not recommended in your owner's manual. And let's face it, carmakers aren't necessarily big on making retro changes to their manuals because it would then open a giant can of worms for them.