[The Vector] Politics Over Reason Yet Again?
This is a follow up to a Vector story that appeared August 24th, 2010, called “Opposing Ethanol”. In that story, we discussed that an effort in the form of an energy bill was poised to allow an increase of ethanol mix. The mix was 10%, but the bill was seeking to raise this to 15%.
Many from various sectors and industries were very opposed to this. Why? Ethanol can be damaging and corrosive to engines, and is known to damage engines as well as exhaust systems; and increasing emissions from engines defeat emission control devices. I will add that in my opinion, corn-based ethanol has many problems (discussed in the August 24th post.)
Despite reasonable science, and despite heaving lobbying against raising the cap of ethanol allowed to be mixed into gasoline, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) passed the bill on October 13th. It seems ironic that an agency that is supposed to protect the environment and our safety would allow this. The EPA says that from its testing, cars built in 2007 and forward “shouldn’t” be damaged from the new blend called E-15. (Cars owned that were built in 2007 and later accounts for 18% of our nation’s cars, according to David Sedgwick at Translogic). The EPA will apparently test older cars later to see what they find.
In the meantime, gas station owners are furious. They are afraid of being sued if a car is damaged, even if EPA labels are put (more…)