Big Oil’s E15 Hypocrisy: Hello Pot, Meet Kettle

by Geoff Cooper (Renewable Fuels Association/Ethanol Producer Magazine) While President Donald Trump’s October announcement calling for the year-round availability of E15 was enthusiastically cheered by biofuel producers, farmers and consumers, it drew predictable jeers and indignation from the oil industry and its allies. And hell hath no fury like Big Oil scorned.

In response to the president’s E15 directive, the American Petroleum Institute launched a barrage of advertisements ridiculously claiming E15 can “damage engines,” “put consumers at risk,” and “void manufacturer warranties.” The API ads go on to assert that three out of four vehicles on the road are “not designed for E15.”

It’s also more than a little ironic that while the oil industry is drumming up misinformation about E15 and auto warranties, it continues to sell large volumes of low-octane gasoline (85 AKI)—a fuel that is most certainly not approved or warrantied by a single automaker. In fact, the Department of Energy and EPA warn that using gasoline with low octane can “…cause the engine to run poorly and can damage the engine and emissions control system over time. It may also void your warranty.” Hello pot, meet kettle.

But the most compelling rebuttal to API’s nonsensical claims on E15 and “engine damage” is this: Americans have consumed more than 250 million gallons of E15 and driven nearly 6 billion miles on the fuel since it was first introduced in 2012 at a station in Lawrence, Kansas. That’s the equivalent of 250,000 trips around the world. And in that span, there hasn’t been a single proven or documented case of E15 causing engine damage, voiding a warranty, or, in API’s words, “putting consumers at risk.” Not one.

In fact, the only thing put “at risk” by E15 is the petroleum industry’s market share and near-monopoly at the pump. READ MORE

Excerpt from Times Union: But the article "EPA's change to ethanol limits raises smog worries," Oct. 10, only quoted ethanol critics, like the National Wildlife Federation, which has spent years working directly with the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Association's anti-biofuel campaign.

In 2004, the state of New York replaced toxic fuel additives with clean, renewable ethanol, which adds oxygen to the fuel mix for a cleaner burn. In 2005, federal lawmakers caught up by adopting the Renewable Fuel Standard. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute notes that "increasing ethanol content from E10 to E15 reduces harmful volatile organic compound emissions, displaces cancer-causing emissions, and reduces smog-forming potential."