EPA Delays E-15 Fuel Ruling until 2010
As we’ve been covering for you in the past, the Environmental Protection Agency has been considering a request from various agro-business entities for a waiver which would allow the expansion of bio-fuel additives to gasoline from the current 10% limit to 15%. The automotive industry has largely called for slowing down this process until adequate testing can be performed to ensure that the increased levels will not cause long term damage to current model cars.
This week, the EPA announced that they will not rule on the waiver request until some time next year, after thorough testing has been conducted. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers was quick to praise this decision and participate in further testing.
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers today praised the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) postponement of a decision on an ethanol producer waiver application seeking to increase the amount of ethanol permitted to be blended in gasoline from 10 to 15 percent. Automakers want government testing to prove that increasing the allowable ethanol blend limit will not harm vehicle emissions, performance, and durability.
Alliance President and CEO Dave McCurdy stated, “We are pleased that EPA recognizes the importance of making decisions based on sound science. Any decisions on blends higher than E-10 for the existing fleet should be postponed until adequate testing results are available.”
There is little question that we need to be exploring every possible avenue of improving the efficiency and environmentally friendly nature of our automobiles and we absolutely have to reduce our dependency on foreign oil suppliers. But rushing into this without considering the long term impact on the current fleet of cars may well cause more problems than it solves. It’s good to see the EPA taking their time and digging into the hard science on this one, rather than simply diving into a politically correct, populist decision which could hurt more than it helps. Three cheers for science!
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5 Responses to “EPA Delays E-15 Fuel Ruling until 2010”
Who is going to buy me a new car if the 15% ruins my engine? I hope the testing is on 10-25 year old cars, but somehow I doubt that.
Actually, they are testing 2001 models and newer. It's covered in the linked article.
Who is going to buy me a new car if the 15% ruins my engine?
That would be handled through the Cash for Ethanol-induced Clunkers program.
Now we know what it takes for crazier environmentalism and other leftist political intentions to be braked with some overdue reality. However, it may not necessarily connote a message of true relief.
Apparently what's needed is for crazier regulations and policies to affect enterprises owned at least partially, in a suitably large enough fraction, government, or for government otherwise to be adversely affected by what government might otherwise do without thinking. (GM and Chrysler would suffer from E15, the example here.)
Surely we can't be so desperate as to hope for more government ownership or direct control of more of the private sector, as our best prospect for arresting more poor government agenda and policy elements and goals.
“We are pleased that EPA recognizes the importance of making decisions based on sound science. Any decisions on blends higher than E-10 for the existing fleet should be postponed until adequate testing results are available.”
We won't be so lucky about the risk of being subjected to “greenhouse” regulatory experimentation.