MAINE
SHOULD LIMIT ETHANOL IN GASOLINE
By
Kris Kiser, President OPEI, Special to the Bangor Daily News
January
28 -- I read with interest the story about Maine eyeing to ban fuel with more
than 10 percent ethanol in the Jan. 11 article http://bangordailynews.com/2013/01/10/news/state/maine-dep-working-on-plan-to-ban-gas-blends-with-more-than-10-percent-ethanol/
Hats
off to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and hopefully Maine
lawmakers in their quest to ensure consumer safety.
As
the head of the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, an organization that has
been battling the introduction of higher ethanol blend fuels for several years,
Maine’s effort to protect consumers from the risky and harmful effects of
ethanol 15’s use should be lauded.
Ethanol
15 (E15) was prematurely introduced into the marketplace. In a rush to
introduce a renewable fuel, E15 now appears at gas pumps across the country,
causing confusion, anxiety, anger — and engine failure.
Too
many citizens do not understand that E15 is only approved for use in 2001 and
newer automobiles or flex-fuel vehicles, according to the Environmental
Protection Agency. This means any other product with an engine is incompatible
with E15, by law.
The
risks of misfueling with higher ethanol fuel blends are not trivial, especially
for Maine. Engine failure from using E15 is no small matter. For one, the
forest and paper industry are greatly impacted when the engines of their
chainsaws, chippers and grinders fail. Boats, snowmobiles and utility vehicles
have stranded their users when their engine quits. Expensive landscape, snow
removal and other power equipment have been ruined. These scenarios are not only
inconvenient, but dangerous.
Even
automobile makers are not convinced it is good for vehicle engines. We fully
concur with AAA’s (Triple A) call that the sale and use of E15 “be suspended
until additional gas pump labeling and consumer education efforts are
implemented to mitigate problems for motorists and their vehicles.”
We
agree consumers should always have a choice. Our country should move toward
energy independence, and other fuel sources should be investigated. But to
introduce a fuel that is potentially dangerous and harmful to so many engine
products is reckless.
The
totality of EPA’s education effort on E15 for the 150 million Americans using
hundreds of millions of products is a 3-by-3-inch label at the gas pump. We
find this wholly inadequate and dangerous.
OPEI
is asking members of Congress to halt the sale of E15 and not ask consumers to
bear the brunt of this hasty decision. Then, revisit our renewable fuel policy
and make sure we introduce a biofuel that is safe and sustainable. If we truly
believe in energy independence, it shouldn’t come at the price of putting our
citizens at risk.
Maine’s
action to preempt the known problems of E15 should be a model for other states
who wish to protect their citizens from the dangers of this new fuel blend.
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