posted 03-11-2015 10:10 AM                  

"Car enthusiast and comedian Jay Leno made it clear: He hates ethanol and he blames the Renewable Fuel Standard.

So he wants car enthusiasts to ask legislators to draft laws that reform or eliminate the law that mandates increasing levels of ethanol in the fuel supply.

In a recent Autoweek op-ed, the former Tonight Show host lamented replacing fuel-pressure regulators every 12 or 18 months on each of the autos in his vast car collection to avoid car fires — or, “ka-bloooooie,” as Leno puts it.

“New cars are equipped with fuel lines that are resistant to ethanol damage, but with older cars, the worst can happen — you’re going down the road and suddenly your car is on fire,” Leno wrote in the March 4 op-ed.

He also bemoaned the shorter shelf life of fuel containing ethanol, an issue boaters have long complained about — particularly those in regions that have seasonal boating.

“If I run a car from the teens or ’20s and fill it up with modern fuel, then it sits for more than two months, I often can’t get it to start,” Leno wrote.

His message: “Blame the Renewable Fuel Standard.”

“This government-mandated rule requires certain amounts of ethanol and other biofuels be blended with gasoline and diesel fuel,” Leno wrote. “But when Congress first passed RFS as part of the Energy Policy Act in 2005, our demand for energy was increasing.”

Today, total demand has decreased “thanks to more-efficient vehicles, more hybrids and increased environmental awareness,” Leno wrote.

“I just don’t see the need for ethanol,” he writes. “I understand the theory — these giant agri-business companies can process corn, add the resulting blend to gasoline and we’ll be using and importing less gasoline. But they say this diversion of the corn supply is negatively affecting food prices, and the ethanol-spiked gas we’re forced to buy is really awful.”

The EPA is set to release the 2015 standard in June, he said. Meanwhile, some legislators are pushing to reform or eliminate the Renewable Fuel Standard entirely.

posted 03-11-2015 11:07 AM                  

Federal, state legislation aims to curb ethanol use in gasoline

Daniel Strohl Mar 5th, 2015 at 8am
Unable to get their anti-corn ethanol legislation included as a rider on an unrelated bill earlier this year, two U.S. senators have now re-introduced it as a standalone bill aimed at rolling back portions of the Renewable Fuel Standard, joining at least four other pieces of legislation on the federal and state levels aimed at reducing the amount of corn-based ethanol in modern fuel blends. Retaining the same name and much of the same wording as the earlier piece of legislation – the Corn Ethanol Mandate Elimination Act of 2015, which failed to make its way into the Keystone XL Pipeline Act – senators Dianne Feinstein of California and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania introduced the bill (S.577) last week, calling for a modification of the Renewable Fuel Standard to promote other biofuels, including biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol, over corn-based ethanol. “Our infrastructure has a ceiling for the amount of corn ethanol that can be used, and we’re rapidly approaching it,” Feinstein wrote in a press release announcing the legislation. “Companies are physically unable to blend more corn ethanol into gasoline without causing problems for many gas stations and older automobiles.” Opponents of the legislation, including the Renewable Fuel Association, the National Corn Growers Association, and the Advanced Ethanol Council, have characterized it as “an attack on the Renewable Fuel Standard” and have called for the EPA to increase the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline despite the EPA’s acknowledgement of the ethanol blend wall. Both Feinstein/Toomey and their opponents do seem to agree that it’s worth investing in other forms of cellulosic ethanol – that is, ethanol made from switchgrass and other non-food plant materials. Meanwhile, Representative Bob Goodlatte of Virginia last month introduced the RFS Reform Act of 2015 (H.R.704), which proposes a number of changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard, among them a 10 percent cap on the amount of ethanol added to gasoline. Goodlatte had introduced similar legislation in 2013. On the state level, legislators in Pennsylvania (H.B. 471), Oregon (H.B.2373), and Hawaii (S.B.717) have introduced bills aimed at eliminating altogether those states’ requirements that all gasoline sold there contain at least 10 percent ethanol. All three bills have since been referred to committees. The SEMA Action Network, which monitors legislative issues for the collector-car hobby, backs all three state-level bills.

- See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.p hp/2015/03/05/federal-state-legislation-aims-to-curb-ethanol-use-in-gasoline/?refer=news#sthash.mtyZeZ6W.dpuf: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.ph p/2015/03/05/federal-state-legislation-aims-to-curb-ethanol-use-in-gasoline/?refer=news#sthash.mtyZeZ6W.dpuf

posted 03-11-2015 12:23 PM                  

Ethanol started out innocent enough at 5% to replace MTB as an additive because of the environmental issues with MTB. MTB itself replaced lead in motor fuels. Ethanol also sounded good going into motor fuel to replace imported oil. The government then subsidized construction of large methanol plants to produce more ethanol and use up corn surpluses.

Don't get me wrong. Vehicles can be made to accommodate high percentages of ethanol. My daily driver can use E85. I tried a tank full in my last one. The car ran fine and I didn't notice any difference in power. The issue was that the fuel usage went up measurably, significantly more than the subsidized price that I paid for E85 versus E10 gasoline at the same station.

I don't see the government changing from the current E10 today. I just don't want them to mandate E15. There is a website; http://pure-gas.org/ where you can locate station that offer straight unblended gasoline. I pay a bit more but have used it in all of our small engines for several seasons. My maintenance has been virtually zero other than the routine stuff.

posted 04-20-2015 03:21 PM                  

http://www.engineprofessional.com/TB/TB042015-1.pdf

posted 12-03-2015 06:47 PM                  

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued final targets for the amount of ethanol to be blended into gasoline in 2014, 2015 and 2016, while relying on expanded sales of E15 (gas that contains 15% ethanol) in order to meet the targets. The EPA is required to set ethanol targets under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The law was intended to reduce the nation’s dependency on foreign oil but has translated into ever-increasing corn production so that the ethanol byproduct can be blended into gasoline. Ethanol, especially in higher concentrations such as E15, can cause metal corrosion and dissolve certain plastics and rubbers in automobiles produced before 2001 that were not constructed with ethanol-resistant materials.

posted 07-10-2017 08:19 AM                  

Here is the latest on the EPA and ethanol in our fuel. EPA is tone deaf. Maybe Trump can improve their hearing.

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2017/07/07/ethanol-free-gas-usage-drops-in-2016-still-exceeds-epas-expectations/?refer=news