The American Petroleum Institute (API) has publicly said that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jumped the gun on giving approval for the use of E15. Jack Gerard, President and CEO of API told reporters that testing by the Coordinating Research Council showed that use of E15 – gasoline with 15 percent ethanol – could harm car and truck engines, potentially affecting millions of cars and trucks.
The ethanol industry was quick to respond and Ron Lamberty, Senior Vice President for the American Coalition for Ethanol said, “The real problem here is that people may read about this project and think that it actually has some connection to the real world. The parameters of the test, the definitions of “pass” and “fail” and even the cars selected were carefully chosen to produce the results the study’s funders wanted.”
Lamberty noted that the Department of Energy (DOE) responded to the API study saying that they deliberately included engines with known durability issues, and one engine failed the API tests while running on gasoline without ethanol. Renewable Fuels President and CEO Bob Dinneen echoed the words of DOE and emphasized the importance – and public desire – to diversify our fuel supply including using higher level ethanol blends.
“How Big Oil can trot out this small, slanted, flawed study as something we should take seriously, while calling EPA’s two and a half years of E15 testing a “rush to judgment” is beyond me,” added Lamberty. “Saying it more often and louder won’t make it the truth. All this latest hit piece proves it that ethanol’s opponents are becoming more desperate to keep ethanol – which could help consumers save more at the pump – completely out of the marketplace.”
Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, noted that E15 is the most tested fuel blend in history and is safe to use in cars and light trucks newer than 2001. “Most concerning of all, is a resistance by groups to end our addiction to foreign oil by refusing the American people the voluntary choice of E15 in a free market. While the large oil companies continue to espouse their support of a free market, they have put roadblocks up at every opportunity to prevent the free choice they claim to champion so dearly,” concluded Buis.