The U.S House of Representatives voted to block the EPA’s waiver to allow America’s gas pumps to carry E15, a 15% ethanol/gasoline mixture. Is this the end of America’s experiment with ethanol?
The votes crossed party lines with 286 representatives voting against 135 to stop the EPA’s granting of a wavier to allow gas stations to distribute E15. This is politics at their best, and shows what big business and the government alike think of the average American. The excuse for banning the wavier for E15 stems from a lack of “testing” the effects of E15 on people, the environment, and vehicles. Politicians and automakers alike are concerned that people driving vehicles that aren’t “approved” for E15 will unwittingly put this fuel in their car, damaging their engine, so on and so forth. Automakers, environmentalists, bakers, boat builders, and oil lobbyists alike have aligned to block the EPA from giving gas stations a waiver to sell E15 at their gas stations.
Now I’m no engineer, but I’m not sure another 5% of ethanol will make a difference in a majority of automobiles on the road today. Do automakers not realize that as of right now, they are filling up with E10? My gut feeling is that, unless you are driving a car that is 25+ years old, you don’t have anything to fear from E15. More then that, its not like the EPA was going to suddenly demand that every gas pump in America sell E15; it was merely going to allow those gas stations that wanted to sell E15 the legal right to do so. There are still idiots out there who feed diesel fuel to gasoline engines, and others who haven’t performed an oil change in 20,000 miles. In other words, yes, some American are idiots. But is E15 that big of a deal?
I don’t think ethanol alone can save us from our oil addiction, and converting food into fuel isn’t the best of ideas. However, every day progress is being made on converting inedible biomass into fuel, and bumping up our national fuel blend to E15 would mean we could import 5% less foreign oil and thus reduce our dependency on petroleum. Plus with NASCAR now running E15, the alt-fuel crowd could reach a largely untapped segment of the American population, the “NASCAR Dad” who may not be open to other alternatives, like EV’s or hydrogen, but would love to fill up with the same fuel as his favorite stock car driver (though NASCAR actually runs 110 octane racing fuel blended with 15% ethanol.) I am hoping this is just a temporary setback for ethanol. At the same time, this ruling is another nail in the coffin of the flagging American ethanol industry, with politicians and lobbyists alike hammering away at a very viable alternative to our oil dependency. It’s not perfect; every fuel has its drawbacks. But progress is being made and, quite frankly, anything is better then oil.
I’m just afraid that by the time Congress and the EPA get around to “approving” E15, there won’t be enough of an ethanol industry left to take advantage of it.
Source: Detroit News
Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to HEMI’s. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
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At least you can still get E85 and VP E98.
Thanks for your gut feeling, but perhaps you should look into the facts too.
Ethanol is much less energy dense than gasoline, and the creeping proportion of it is getting near the point where fuel injection computers can’t compensate. Yes, especially the older ones, but are you arguing that older cars (which are still very clean) should be taken off the road and replaced by new ones? Beside the obvious cost to consumers, do you have any idea how much pollution THAT creates?
You say that an additional 5% ethanol means 5% less imported oil, but you forget that ethanol, as it stands, CONSUMES more petroleum than it replaces. “Anything is better than oil”? Wrong.
Assuming ethanol is even good for the environment in the first place, it should be labeled and sold as an alternative fuel for cars designed for it. It shouldn’t be blended in and sold as gasoline.
@ Colin
But it already IS blended in and sold as gasoline. And your statement about the computers compensating is really on a case-by-case basis. GM started using Mass Air Flow sensors in most of its vehicles around 1985. The Ford started using it a few years later. Mass Air Flow sensors allow engines to compensate for more air and fuel based on what the engine needs. Why do I know this? Because its a big advantage in performance cars. And yes, it takes more ethanol then gasoline to go the same distance, but ethanol actually has a higher octane rating. I’m not saying take old cars off the road; far from it. I’m saying that vehicles dating back a quarter of a century should be able to handle a paltry 5% increase in ethanol. Maybe I am wrong, but my 20 year old Jeep gets a full tank of E10 every week, and it runs like a champ. The 4.0 liter I6 has roots back to 1964.
As for ethanol being dirtier then oil, I simply don’t buy it. After you find, drill, extract, refine, and ship oil from half a world away, there is just no logical way ethanol any worse then oil. We can grow it here, in America, where it will get used, and employ Americans. More then that, technology has improved to the point that we can convert biomass that nobody was going to eat anyway into fuel. Maybe we can cut farm subsidies and at the same time give America’s farmers another revenue source.
In short, I think its a whole lot of hollering over nothing. And it is costing the public and private sector a lot of money. I’m not saying everybody should run out and fill their tanks with E85, only that if a gas station wants to carry E15, right now, they should be allowed to. But they can’t. Boo.
Colin, your quoting out-of-date (and possibly erroneous to begin with) data. The studies by Pimentel, et. al (which are the studies which led to the “common knowledge” that ethanol’s energy balance is negative) have been superseded by much more thorough and accurate studies taking into account modern improvements in farm technology, and they show ethanol is a net positive, especially when one considers the fact that gasoline, itself, takes a considerable amount of energy to drill, pump, process, distribute. (See http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/program/ethanol_brochure_color.pdf and the references therein)
Furthermore, much of the “fossil energy” used in the processing of ethanol is coal and natural gas. A liquid fuel is much preferred to either solid or gas. The point being that even if it was net energy neutral, it would still be a gain to society in that you’re converting from “less convenient” energy sources to a “more convenient” energy source.
So, back to the article, I think gas stations should be able to sell gas with any amount of ethanol they want (as long as it’s prominently advertised, of course), but I still want the government to stop subsidizing ethanol (and oil for that matter). Let the market sort it out.
My “your” in the first sentence should be “you’re”. When I’m typing fast, that’s probably my most common English error.
Anytime someone quotes Pimentel or Patzek, I just have to laugh. Dozens of studies show a growing net energy gain in the ethanol production going from 0.7 units gained to 5.4 units gained using switchgrass, though that has not been done commercially yet. Only if you ignore Wang, Groode and all the other studies that show ethanol can be produced with a significant energy gain can you look at the outlier Pimentel/Patzek studies that are completely in disagreement with everyone else.
That having been said, it still isn’t productive enough to make it worth going to E15, yet. Maybe when switchgrass is in full production from marginal land, not when we get our ethanol from corn.
Chris, there is no need to fear losing the ethanol industry over this. In fact, the push for E15 is a lobbying effort by the ethanol industry that wants to operate as a growth industry rather than as a stable mature industry. They over built capacity, and the less efficeint plants must be squeezed out or forced to become more efficent. They are hitting the so called “blend wall”, E10, meaning that they could produce even more ethanol if only they could get the government to force consumers to buy more via E15. A better solution would be to lower the ethanol subsidies, forcing out some producers, but allowing efficent producers to operate at optimum capacity without the “blend wall” concern.
I live in Iowa and the corn growers appreciate the ethanol industry and the consumers that use it. Iowa is also one of the states that allows the sale of real gassoline along with E10 (and E85 if you can find it). I fully support ethanol as an MTBF replacement. I’m less enthusiastic about ethanol as vehicle fuel replacement or suplement. I choose to use real gasoline in my car. However, some states do not allow the choice of real gasoline. Consumer choice is a good thing, but gss stations can only offer a small number choices of fuel to sell. I fear that adding E15 might drive out my prefered choice.
As far as renewable fuels, celulosic ethanol is concept that has been oversold, and may never deliver. Sugar based ethanol makes more sence, and Brazil would be a stable supplier. Bio butanol is a better gasoline replacement than ethanol, but may not become competitive. Bio diesel is good. I’d like to replace my 1984 gas burner with a clean diesel, but the ony candidate can only use B05. I’m bummed about that, and I don’t want to buy an old dirty diesel that can burn B100.
I’m concerned about the increasing size of the ethanol industry, and using corn for ethanol. If there was a law banning the use of ever-more-costly food stock for ethanol conversion, I’d be a more “pro-ethanol” person.
As it is, the only ethanol I’d want to use is E85, in my Chevy Volt for powering the generator motor.
As far as my dino-oil powered vehicles, I seek out pure gasoline for those cars. I hate that my mileage really starts to suffer with ever-increasing ethanol content, without a corresponding decrease in the pump price, making E10 (or E15) a more expensive fuel option.
With starving people in america and around the world, making fuel out of food is the dumbest thing to do, our goverment is being run by a bunch of dopes WAKE UP
All this is the Corn maker wants to get rich, They want to push this so hard so they can make a buck. Also ethanol just costing us more on the pump. Has less power per gallon/less mileage also. Who are we kidding. Also degrading our cars and motorcycles. Our fuel lines would degrade and cause a leak and cause a fire. Yes, I’m a motorcyclist. I seen 1 brand already having problems like Ducatis having the rubber seal gasket degrade causing a leak and cause plastic fuel tanks to expand/warp.
@ Tony
Most engines make more power on ethanol, not less, though it does have less energy density than gasoline. The common misconception is that this bill was going to force everybody to use E15 and that is just not the case. All the EPA did was grant a waiver to those service stations that WANTED to carry E15. It was not going to force this fuel on to anyone.
I wish YOU were the one that has to buy my fuel additives to keep the ethanol from separating in my gas tanks and to disassemble and clean the carburetors on my small gas engines, outboard, chainsaw, etc. Ethanol attracts water, which causes fuel to deteriorate early and promotes rust in the fuel system. It also attacks plastic and rubber fuel line components. Oh, and have you noticed the increase in food costs now that ethanol is subsidized???
Fianlly!! E15 waiver accepted!