I thought the article was a little more dramatic than I would have written. I did not intend to come across that way when Bob interviewed me for the article earlier last week. Plus, there were a few minor technical errors. He didn't offer to let me proof read the article before he went to press. There were two objectives I was trying to get across to readers:
1. This new 15% gasoline CANNOT be used in any type of engines except in 2001 and newer cars and light trucks and 'Flex' vehicles.
2. And, IF current 10% ethanol stations ALL convert to the new 15% ethanol gas AND if consumers were not able to find a readily available source of ethanol free gas in their communities, we'd have a very serious dilemma, potentially affecting millions of consumers in Louisiana.
The number of ethanol free stations in the State continues to decline ever since Marathon stopped selling ethanol free gas at their Garyville Refinery. I've already had to take 60 stations off my website's ethanol free gas station list. Marathon was the major supplier of ethanol free gas to south and north Louisiana. Because we still have Murphy Refinery (however, I recently learned that Murphy Refinery is being sold to Valero, which sells ALL their gas as ethanol gas!) and the Chalmette Refining Company (formerly Exxon-Mobil refinery) in Chalmette and the Placid Refinery in Port Allen, we are still able to get ethanol free gas to most of south Louisiana, but at a slightly higher price due to the added cost to truck it a longer distance than distributors had to do from the Marathon plant. However, the same cannot be said for north Louisiana. The majority of stations I've had to take off my ethanol free gas station list were from the Monroe , Bossier City and Shreveport area.
I'm glad that Mr. Marshall showed the new EPA gas pump label in the article for the new 'E-15' gas so readers would at least be familiar with it when they start seeing it on pumps later this year as stations start to receive the new blend.
I was not trying to predict 'doom and gloom' in the article. But, I was at least happy that he put out the article. I thank him for that.
Increase of ethanol in gas will cause damage to certain vehicles
Published: Sunday, September 04, 2011, 8:15 AM Updated: Sunday, September 04, 2011, 8:31 AM
"Oh no," Landry said, "It's much worse than that."
Worse?
"This won't just impact sportsmen. The E-15 can't be used in 2000 and older cars and light trucks, marine engines, motorcycles, jet skies, four wheelers, chain saws, any lawn equipment, gas powered home generators or anything else that that uses these small, air-cooled engines.
"We're talking probably millions of people impacted. We're facing a real crisis."
Landry is no Chicken Little. He's a retired oil- and petrochemical-industry chemist who has spent the past few years as a pro-bono researcher investigating the impacts of ethanol blends on sportsmen and others. When you check out the results on his website, PeteLandrysRealGas.com, you realize the sky really could fall.
Some history.
In 2007, President George Bush signed the Energy Independence and Security Act, which, among other things, required a 20-percent reduction in gasoline consumption by 2017. Much of that was to be achieved by the use of renewable fuels, a goal encouraged by a 45-cent per gallon tax credit to refiners for producing ethanol blends -- the Volumetric Ethanol Tax Credit.
This was a hugely popular event across political lines, but the euphoria didn't last long. Turned out corn-based ethanol actually costs more energy to produce than it saves. The rapid expansion of corn acres resulted in an increase in fertilizers that harm waterways, a loss of wildlife habitat, and soaring food prices worldwide.
While those impacts were generating headlines, what had been thought would be a small list of costs to a whole range of internal combustion engines began climbing. Ethanol, which is basically grain alcohol, collects moisture in fuel tanks, and is corrosive to hoses and engine parts not specifically engineered to handle it. That list would only climb as the refiners moved to meet the government's gradually increasing percent of ethanol.
This fall, we'll be hitting the E-15 mark, a level considered unsuitable even for new outboards, almost all small engines, and any car built before 2001.
The Environmental Protection Agency will require retailers to post a label on pumps stating the fuel should not and, in fact, cannot legally be used in anything other than passenger vehicles produced after 2001 and Flex-fuel vehicles.
But Landry says chaos is bound to ensue for two reasons: That label is much too small and not specific enough, and neither state nor federal governments are requiring refiners and retailers to produce enough ethanol-free fuel.
In fact, the alternative fuel subsidies give refiners a market incentive to produce most, if not all, of their fuel with ethanol, a far higher volume than the government currently requires. In June, the
"Availability is a huge problem for retailers," he said. "And that's going to get worse.
"Ethanol-free gas is already more expensive, and when we start losing in-state refineries, it will just go higher," Landry said. "My fear is that when this E-15 goes into effect, people who don't know the danger will pull up to a gas station and miss that label, or just look at the price and go to the cheaper fuel and do real damage to their engines."
So what can be done?
Some help may be coming soon as Congress considers repealing what has become a $5 billion annual subsidy of ethanol. That could lead some refiners into becoming producers of ethanol-free fuels.
But what really needs to happen is for governments -- state and federal -- to require retailers to offer at least one pump of non-ethanol fuel. That would provide the market for refiners to offer that product.
I'm not suggesting the nation should leave the alternative fuel race. If anything, we should invest more in supporting technologies that help get us off carbon fuels. If we don't, there isn't much of a future for southeast
In the meantime, keep checking PeteLandrysRealGas.com for safe fuel near you.
