The farm lobby launched it's first salvo in response to the new Obama budget this week. To offset reduced crop support payments, the ethanol branch of the farm lobby enlisted Wesley Clark to advocate increasing the legal amount of ethanol in blended gas from 10% (E10) to 20 or 30%. The standard positions on increasing energy independence and supporting American farmers topped this list of rationale for this change.
What wasn't discussed was the long-term impact on the users of this new blend of fuel. While the energy department concluded a limited test last year, no systematic, long-term test has been concluded on the effects of these higher blends on a representative cross-section of the American motoring public. It's one thing to evaluate new cars and trucks, but something altogether different to look at the effects on the vehicles people actually own and use.
Small engine manufacturers have for years been raising the caution flag on blended fuel on the basis that their long-term effects are not well understood. And why is it if ethanol is so benign, as its advocates constantly remind us, is not used in aircraft fuel?
Anyway, living in a farm state and having many friends who have a stake in profitable row-crop production, I will say this: before we rush into another change in fuel standards, let's get all the facts in. Remember the mandate to put MTBE into gasoline? That was supposed address air quality concerns. Well it did, but in the rush to implementation the far greater threat to human health, contaminantion of the drinking water supply by what turned out to be a nasty carcinogen, was missed or at least de-emphasized.
Let's get better data before we jump off the deep end for higher ethanol blends.
