Ethanol leaves consumers stranded

By. Congressman Sensenbrenner
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-perspec-0524-ethanol-20120524,0,1865983.story

Ready or not, here it comes.

At least that is the message from the ethanol lobby about E15, gasoline with 15 percent ethanol. Ethanol producers are in the process of clearing the final requirements to increase the amount of ethanol in our gas.

Because the Environmental Protection Agency is willing to rush the approval of E15 without considering its full effect on American drivers, we could soon experience a significant and potentially harmful change to our mainstream fuel supply without first resolving questions about how vehicles will be affected.

In 2010, at the request of the ethanol lobby, the EPA issued a partial waiver to allow E15 in cars model year 2001 and later. In reaching this decision, the EPA relied on a single Department of Energy study that was never intended to be comprehensive.

EPA has continued to ignore significant contrary evidence that shows E15 can cause engine damage, and that mound of evidence is growing. The Coordinating Research Council just released a study that shows E15 can cause engine damage even in new cars. I have contacted the EPA to determine if it still believes the fuel will not damage engines, and I am eagerly awaiting that response.

According to the ethanol lobby, the success of E15 should be determined by consumer choice. There are two problems with that argument.

First, consumer choice was eclipsed by a government mandate five years ago when Congress passed the Energy Independence Security Act. This legislation mandated that our fuel include increasing amounts of ethanol.

Second, if E15 is widely available, consumers will face conflicting — and confusing — information when deciding which fuel to use filling up at the pump.

In order to quell concerns that E15 could find its way into older vehicles and small engines, the EPA requires all gas pumps selling E15 to post a sticker that says the fuel is approved only for vehicles made 2001 and later.

But the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that some car companies, such as Ford, have started including a warning on gas caps explicitly warning drivers that they should not use gasoline higher than E10 on their 2012 models.

The government is telling consumers that E15 is safe for their vehicles, but the manufacturers of those engines disagree and even explicitly warn that its use would void the warranty, cause lower fuel efficiency, and cause premature engine damage.

Consider this hypothetical situation: Joe Driver uses E15 thanks to EPA's mitigation sticker and he experiences engine damage. However, when Joe takes his car into the auto shop, the automaker can point to the warranty and because he used E15 in his vehicle, the company has no obligation to cover the engine damages.

Because oil companies are under a government mandate to sell more ethanol in our gasoline, despite the likelihood E15 could end up damaging their customers' vehicles, some members of Congress introduced legislation that would protect fuel retailers, engine manufacturers and fuel producers from lawsuits stemming from the use of E15.

As a result, the typical American driver, who was clearly told that E15 was approved by the government for use in his car, will be forced to pay out of pocket for premature engine damage.

In our national pursuit toward energy security, we should not allow the government to force an inferior product into the market and leave Americans to foot the bill.

The conflicting evidence from the EPA, the responses that I received from U.S. automakers, and now the Coordinating Research Council affirms that we need an independent analysis of the effect of E15. I introduced legislation that requires the EPA to contract with the National Academies of Science, which doesn't have an economic interest in this fight, to determine whether this fuel is going to damage people's cars.

We need to hit the brakes on ethanol and make sure we get the science right; Americans should not have to worry that the gasoline they put in their cars will force them to make more trips to the pump or sideline them completely.

Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is the vice chair of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.