Guys, go puck up an ethanol test kit. It is nothing more than a graduated vial that you add water and fuel, shake and measure the separation line. The amount of ethanol from many sources is much higher than the 9% mandated - especially if you purchase fuel from stations with little sales, where fuel has had time to settle and separate.
It is simple, and you don't need a kit. A graduated cylinder is all you need.
I don't know what it is like in your neck of the woods, but around here the fuel inventory is constantly changing.
Routinely selling E30 when someone buys E10 would put you in line for a lawsuit in light of the industry's aversion to having anything more than E10 in a tank.
The Prius, for example, has a fuel bladder that can be degraded by contact with ethanol in greater concentration than 10%. If Prius owners were seeing degradation of the bladder attributable to excess ethanol, I guarantee that there would be class action suits to follow.
OEMs are allowed (encouraged) to overestimate rated crankshaft output by 10%. Losses through transmission, final drive, tire, etc. can exceed 20% at higher torque output.
Also, there are many ways to measure output. At acceleration rate decreases, output tends to do the same - even on eddy current dynos.
I'm going to call pure, unadulterated BS on this one.
There have been lawsuits over stated power, and this has led to the SAE certification process whereby an unbiased independent certified observer establishes that proper test procedures were followed, and that the results reported were the actual results.
There have even been class action suits over the issue of overstated results for both power and mpg. In fact, I was a recipient of two cash awards a few years ago since I had owned two vehicles in the class.
I have an eddy current dyno ... These are still consumer products, not research grade equipment. I think I gave around $30K for mine. It would have cost $300K+ to get a research grade unit at the time.
The most sophisticated dynos, used in virtually all factory test cells, can distinguish output differences all the way down to small fractions of horsepowers. An eddy current dyno is typically an order of magnitude or more less useful. One of my former students was chief engineer for a prominent NASCAR team many years ago, and his take on it was that he could find about 20 hp per year, but that he found it a quarter hp at a time. As sloppy as you describe things, it would be just about impossible to discern quarter hp differences.
I really don't want to get into a p**sing contest on this stuff, so I'm out. I may post results after I've checked four samples of local E10 and E0 from Kroger, Exxon, Shell, and Gulf. Or, more likely, I'll lose interest.