ADias

The screw is turned once more - EPA approves E15.

Edgy01

If 15% is so much better than 10%, why don't we just cut to the chase and go to 50-50! That MUST be better!

Fahrer

This is not a good development. There will be a lot of damage to fuel systems in many, many cars over the next years.

ADias

EPA Approves E15 Ethanol Blends For 2007 And Later Model Years, Automakers, Blenders And Auto Advocates Protest.

brt3

This is not only an idiotic and biased decision, it completely ignores both engineering fact, scientific evidence, and mechanical efficiency. Ethanol, when derived from corn, is hugely inefficient. Way to go, ADM -- I like that they were able to have the media characterize this as something that benefits "The American Farmer". Read: Large Corporations Taking Advantage of Gov't Subsidies Intended for Small Farms -- that's "The American Farmer" who benefits from this...

I need a drink...

Mike in CA

Since E15 isn't approved for vehicles prior to 2007, it means station owners will have to add another pump if the want to carry it, as they will need to continue to provide other fuels for older cars. Hopefully the economics of this will slow penetration of E15. And if it does actually become available, vote with the pump handle and your pocketbook and buy the old formulations which will still be around. Until the next turn of the screw.....

ADias

The problem is that the EPA is still "studying" the E15 effects on pre-07 cars and may still in its infinite wisdom "legislate" that E15 is safe, even though everybody else may disagree.

kosmo

this topic get me soo mad. Corn lobby at work. It s/b about choices. The consumer should have the option. I luv the overly used argument that it helps reduce dependence on foreign oil. What a bunch of BS. Dont these guys have anything better to do? oh wait. Arent they trying to rename high fructose corn suryup to corn sugar. The fleecing of America I'd say.

KBS911

Exactly. We are a fuel and lubricants wholesaler with limited retail access. One of our biggest sellers now is 93 octane non-ethanol fuel. Muscle cars, motorcycles, sports cars and especially boats can't get enough of it. If i had a nickle for every customer horror story/major engine repair on boats using the 10% eth fuel I'd retire. It has been great for out marine repair customers, though. They have never been so busy. I run the 93 octane in my GT3. It's not a daily driver so I just fill up a couple of 5 gallon race jugs and bring it home in my truck for weekends or top offs. Just yesterday I had a customer in a late model Z06 tell me that he is getting 3-4 mpg more with the non-eth. Not scientific of course but ethanol blended fuels make less energy so there should be a cause and effect.

jhbrennan

Some tuners are running E85 Ethanol in the P-car - if the car is tuned properly for E15 how can that blend be any more damaging than E85?

wiggy

The reality is that none of the stations will change over their pumps to support this. The price of ethanol and conventional fuel are first of all, too close to be worth the investment at this time - and as demand for ethanol increases that spread will continue to shrink.

E15 might be "here" but it will be a long long time before it makes any impact - if ever.

Norsk

As you drive across the upper midwest you see all these new ethanol plants; the only saving grace is that when and if the ethanol craze goes away we'll be left with plenty of vodka distilleries

Hella-Buggin'

The Corn Lobby has major clout in this country and has been heavy subsidized since Nixon. The Fed basically has to find something to do with all their corn and since the current aversion to High Fructose Corn Syrup... it apparently is gearing up to be a the next cheap fuel.

Kuhan

What's the difference between an 06 911 and a 07 911 that makes the 07 safe to use E15 in?

This whole thing is driven by the government subsidy on corn prices. IIRC, the corn price is set such that if it goes below a certain level, the government subsidized the difference - this led to farmers planting more and more corn as the corn price was low so the only way to make money is to plant more. This then led to an oversupply of corn and since it was so cheap, businesses looked into ways to take advantage of this oversupply. Companies like Monsanto started engineering all kinds of food additives using the cheap corn as a feed-stock. Also, since the price was so low, ethanol production became viable and people started builing ethanol plants. Ethanol blending with gasoline in reaction to a high oil price has driven up the ethanol demand and now has driven up the corn price. E15 is just going to drive the corn price higher and it's going to get a a place where it's just as expensive as oil.

ADias

Two reasons:

Street cars are not ready to run ethanol. Even E10 will corrode gaskets and fuel circuit components over time.

Inefficiency. Cars running E10 already have a 15-20% deficit in MPG.