Gunther1000
Active LVC Member
http://content.usatoday.com/communi...llow-15-ethanol-in-gasoline-up-from-10-now-/1
Environmental Protection Agency will announce today that it allow a mix of up to 15% ethanol with gasoline in motor fuel for general use in vehicles built since 2007, up from the current 10% maximum, according to reports by the Associated Press and Bloomberg News.
The new blend could be confusing at the pump since motorists may have choose not just among octane ratings but also between E-10 and E-15 based on the age of what they are driving. While E-10 now is fairly common, stations are not required to offer either, and some have already said they are going to sit out the E-15 controversy by not offering it for now.
The move does not affect special E-85 fuel -- a mix that is 85% ethanol -- that already is allwed by the government. The fuel is sold primarily in the Midwest and requires the auto or machine engine to be designed as "flex fuel" so it can use the higher amount of more-corrosive ethanol without damage.
The EPA is expected to fairly quickly expand the approval of E-15 to vehicles built since 2001 after additional testing due to be finished next month. Some automakers and most makers of small engines, such as for lawn mowers have expressed worry about whether their non-flex fuel engines can operate on the 15% blend without damage. The ethanol industry asserts that testing has shown E-15 can be used without harm.
The move comes with the elections a month and away and administration has been under political pressure. Ethanol is primarily corn-based in this country and farm states have pushed for the government to promote more use of it. But a broad group of otherwise odd allies opposes it:
Opponents range from automakers, motor cycles makers and gas-engines makers (used in everything from leaf blowers to boat) to environmentalists, cattle ranchers, food companies and a broad coalition of other groups.
While engine makers fear damage, other opponents argue that producing more corn and using it for ethanol makes animal feed (and thus meat) costly and will raises supermarket prices for the wide range of foods containing corn products.
Environmentalists see it as bad use of land and as promoting energy intensive agriculture.
But the Obama administration has said it continues to support the renewable fuel and the EPA is under a rural state-sponsored congressional mandate to increase ethanol use. Congress has required refiners to blend 36 billion gallons (136 billion liters) of biofuels, mostly ethanol, into auto fuel by 2022 and the EPA says that can't be done without allowing at least a 15% blend.
The ethanol industry group Growth Energy petitioned the EPA earlier this year to allow E-15. The decision has been delayed twice as the EPA and Energy Department did more testing.
The Obama administration's decision to allow E-15 is a win for the ethanol industry as it faces losing its generous government subsidies. A key tax credit is to expire Dec. 31 and there's been opposition in Congress to renewing it.
