This really pisses me off. As a small farmer, I have had several small engines ruined by E10 ethanol, and this asswipe Trump now wants E15, which will destroy many car engines. All in the name of Grassley for the Kavanaugh nomination.
E10 and E15 absorb water, cause rust (and “gunk” in marine engines), and dissolves gaskets.
Ethanol has about 35% less energy than gasoline, resulting in lower auto fuel economy.
It takes at least enough energy to produce ethanol, resulting in zero or negative environmental economy.
It pollutes more.
Here is a Forbes article by Larry Bell on the subject, who usually is a complete idiot, but he hits all the accurate points, and I cite because he references Brett Kavanaugh as ruling against EPA ethanol additions (twice)!
Oh, the irony.
EDIT: My, I have missed some good stuff in the last week:
I just had a long chat with a store rep over choosing a 2 cycle vs. 4 cycle weed wacker. The ethanol discussion came up. I never gave it a lot of thought but I think I know how I lost two mowers in the past now. Of course this was all a game to sell me their premix. But the point stood.
Corn ethanol is a scam. It is bad for engines and the yield is barely over 1 when you compare the amount of energy it takes to produce it to the amount obtained from burning it. That is not even taking into consideration the environmental costs, which are extreme. It should never have been subsidized and it is a consequence of low population, mostly rural states having equal representation in the Senate. Barack Obama won Iowa in 2008 because John McCain criticized corn ethanol, so it is a political third rail. The ultimate answer is conversion of the transportation fleet to electric but that is a long ways down the road.
I would venture to guess that CA will not allow E15 sales during the previous banned time frame, they can lift the limits but I suspect that they cannot force a state to adopt them without a serious legal battle
California has its own fuel requirements (until the EPA cancels that agreement and the lawsuit ends up in front of the hostile majority on the SC), so I doubt we will have the extra ethanol.
Farmers and their suppliers like ethanol. Nobody else does. Even if your car is unharmed by it, it has less energy density than gasoline, so everybody has to fill up more often. Ethanol production in the US is, at best, about break-even on carbon emissions and makes us all pay more for the corn that goes into almost every food product you find in a package. Increased food expense is a highly regressive tax.
The EPA currently bans the high-ethanol blend, called E15, during the summer because of concerns that it contributes to smog on hot days, a claim ethanol industry advocates say is unfounded.
Based on the federal rule-making process and the industries involved, I’m preeeeeety sure there’s actual science behind the EPA rule in the first place. Secondly, was it the ethanol industry who said the rule is unfounded, or just some random dude cheering the industry on and casting doubt on all those who would question?
I’m sure it was some honest-to-goodness industry-funded ethanol advocate with years of experience casting doubt about the health effects of tobacco and about the human impact on global climate.
