EPA Opens 30 Day Comment Period on E15 Waiver
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it is seeking public comments on the “Green Jobs Waiver” that was submitted several weeks ago requesting the current ethanol blend be increased from 10 percent ethanol (E10) to 15 percent (E15). Since 1978, the limit has been set at E10 for conventional (non flex-fuel) vehicles. The comment period will be open for 30 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register which is expected to happen on April 22nd. Last month, the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) certified all current dispensers and components for E15.
In a company statement, Jeff Broin, CEO of POET said, “Lifting the arbitrary cap and allowing ethanol blends of up to 15 percent is our nation’s means to achieve commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol, green jobs and a better environment. It is important that Americans use this comment period to let the Environmental Protection Agency know how important homegrown ethanol is to our nation.”
Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers submitted the E15 application to EPA on March 6, 2009. Current statute calls for EPA to make a decision within 270 days of receipt, which is December 1, 2009. It is imperative for the biofuels industry that the blend wall is increased in order for the ethanol industry to achieve the biofuel levels as set out in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). Increasing the blend wall will also help ensure that there is a market for cellulosic ethanol when full-scale plants come online.
To learn more about the E15 reques or to submit comments, visit http://www.epa.gov/otaq/additive.htm.
10 Comments
Marvin Bodine
No, all of the small motors chain saws, lawn mowers, weedeaters, marine outboards, ect. will run to hot. They can withstand the 10% blend now but anymore or they will burn up. I am not just pulling this out of thin air I have talked to many dealers Sthil, Honda, Gravely, ect in my past job before retirement and they all say it seperates in the fuel, the fuel doesn’t last as long, runs hot, and they don’t have a solution. Nobody is going to buy me new equipment and if they can’t stand on their own without goverment help they need to go out of business. I won’t start on the poor fuel mileage but unless they can come up with a way as not to harm everything but their pocketbook I vote no.
JM
Let me think for a second…….. ok yes, help American fuel, help American jobs, keep American money circulating in the USA eliminating the need to print more money to replace it. 15% Ethanol is a good start but it’s not enough, we need to do much more if we want the economy firing on all cylinders.
Kip Karges
I believe this arbitray cab needs to be moved to 15%. There are many reasons as to why:
1. National security issues
2. Energy Independence – we have to do something NOW!!! There may be other energy alternatives out there BUT what is it and is it avaiable today?
3. Green jobs for the homeland – for every billion gallons of ethanol produced 10 to 20 thousand jobs are created
4. Enviromental issues – 59% less CO2 produced in the production of Ethanol vs. Gasoline
5. Out dated science regarding the current 10% cap
6. Growth oppurtunities for cellosic ethanol will not happen without an increase in to 15% ethanol
7. Billions of dollars will stay here in the USA vs. going to OPEC
8. Billions of dollars in tax revenue will be generated
9. Billions of tax payer dollars saved from lower Farm subsidies being payed out to the farmer due to better markets for corn
10. Lower cost protein production for human consumption – very well documented in scientific peer reviewed research articles
11. For every bushell of corn converted to Ethanol one third of that bushell is returned in the form of Dried Distillers Grains to the animal feed industry
12. Food vs. Fuel Debate – we had the FOURTH LARGEST carry in the US corn crop last!! How does this work with food prices having risen and stayed up. The grocery retailers are recording record profits as this debate goes on for Ethanol.
13. For every Ag dollar spent in the production of Agriculture products for human consumption less the 20 cents goes towards the actuall production of the product. Over 60 cents of every Ag dollar goes towards: 1) Tranportation 2) Labor and 3) Packaging of products. Two of the three of these have what in common you might ask – PETROLEUM!
14. The future of incresing the corn yield looks extremly bright according to Monsanto and Pioneer. Both have similiar predictions in which corn yield will increase dramitcally over the next 10 years. If Ethanol from corn is held in check at the current rates we could be facing a extreme case of over supply of corn in the near future. Thus corn prices would fall off sharply causing a ripple effect in other commodieties to follow. Cost of production may actually be greater then what the crop is worth. In addition, the entire animal feeding sector will see proftiablity on their respective protein species have a significant drop in value.
Please do the right thing and raise the cap on Ethanol to 15%. It is the right thing to do!
flee
I like ethanol fuel. My minivan and pickup runs good with splashing in a mix of 30%. The oil seems to stay clean and the engine has more power. Feels good to burn some domestic home grown fuel. I would vote for pushing ethanol production and consumption to the maximum especially during the recession times. We need to stabilize the profitability of investing in ethanol production and sales. GM has an direct injection engine with all sorts of innovations that should run ethanol very efficient. Michigan drivers haven’t had to concern themselves with water in fuel system since most unleaded in this part of state blended to e10.
Per my experience with small engines. Never had a problem with the e10 fuel. Now, I’ve had plenty of problems with 2 cycle engines and 50:1 oil mix. These problems solved with the 22:1 oil mixes. I think the small engine manufacturers had to decrease air pollution for EPA. They utilized low friction coatings and low oil mixtures. It works fine until your cooling fins get coated and plugged with debris or you wear the friction coatings off.
Many cheap 2 cycle engines not properly designed to run 50:1 oil mixtures. I run 22:1 gas mix on my 2 cycle engines, problem solved. The problem predated ethanol e10 gas. Small 4 cycles mowers no problem. The chainsaws will idle with more rpm and require resetting idle screw. This adjustment common and part of normal maintenance procedure.
Chris P.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Green jobs for our country!
Billions of dollars staying here (USA) vs. going to OPEC!
Energy independence!
Using corn which we have so much of and getting a better price!
Do the right thing and help our country out!!
Darryl
Hey Kip,
Why don’t you cite where your facts are coming from? What a crock. Some of your statements make no sense at all. Ethanol is the single worst thing that has happened in this country. We all agree that we need alternative fuels, but ethanol is by far one of the worst. Do a little bit of research, and you will find compelling arguments for both sides of petrol vs. ethanol. We can cover our entire country in corn, and it still wouldn’t be enough to satisfy our fuel needs and keep us from using foreign oil. Does that sound like a realistic plan? Let’s bury our resources and finances into a plan that we already know won’t work. Hydrogen fuel cells are the future. Virtually pollution-free, plentiful, inexpensive. As soon as big oil can figure out how to monoploize it (they have the only real transportation system) you will see a sharp increase of hydrogen fuel cells. One of the biggest benefits from that will be that there will no longer be a “kill zone” the size of the state of Connecticut in the gulf of Mexico every year, which is caused primarily from over-fertilizing to grow more corn for ethanol. And finally, your argument for increasing the cap or we’ll have an over-abundance of corn…that’s laughable. It’s like a fireman saying, “If the house fire goes out, we’ll be wasting water.” I don’t vote for setting the house next door on fire so we can continue to validate the water use. Because the government irresponsibly jumped on the ethanol bandwagon, I predict a future “farm-aid” that will make the last one look like a walk in the park. The government will have no choice but to pull the plug on ethanol, and all of our farmers will be left with over-mortgaged farms and loans on farm equipment. It will be a sad day.
Cindy Zimmerman
Darryl,
Regarding facts – I would say that “ethanol is the single worst thing that has happened in this country” would be hyperbole at best, certainly not a fact.
As you say, compelling arguments exist for both sides of the story. That indicates that there is no clear consensus.
No one is saying that ethanol will ever satisfy all of our fuel needs. The plan that makes the most sense is to have a variety of different alternatives – including ethanol and hydrogen – to help lessen our dependence on fossil fuels.
cz
Darryl
Hi cz,
You’re right. It was hyperbole the way it was written. I was thinking (but didn’t write) “ethanol is the single worst thing that has happened in this country as “the” solution for foreign oil dependency – IMO”. I try not to exaggerate. Thanks for pointing that out.
Darryl
gerald kupeerus
we have built hot rods for 35 years and have the ecm for electronic fuel injection and when we build high class show veh. we use stainless steel fuel lines and and tanks plus we have always used aviation style fuel lines for ethanol they are teflon lined just like Indy cars and alky dragsters we can get many diff mpg readings on a dyno tune depending on engine build and eth mix combo we found hp increased hand in hand with higher percentages of ethanol vs gas as long as compression or boost was increased and pollution went way down at the same time . Also as a matter of fact the engines ran cooler plus couldn’t get spark knock and no burned valves ever . of coarse our ecm is mapped to run from mid grade gasoline to e-85 and more and some engines do better on 30% keep in mind you should compare it to premium at least because of octane or racing fuel in a drum at 104 oct.( 15.00 PER GAL ) as e-85 is 105 or more And furthermore if you have an understanding of engines at all high octane is COOLER CONTROLLED BURN NOT HOTTER AND REGULAR GAS AT ITS LOW OCTANE RUNS HOT AND CAN GIVE ENGINE BLOWING SPARK DETONATION THAT’S WHY YOUR FAMILY CAR HAS LOW COMPRESSION 8.5 -1 AND PERFORMANCE ENGINES RUN 9.-1 AND UP TO 15-1 COMP.RATIOS ,IF YOUR RUNNING HOTTER THAN NORMAL YO MAY BE TO LEAN AND NEED TO RE TUNE BUT KEEP IN MIND YOU CAN MAKE LOTS OF POWER AS WE HAVE 1500.HP AT REAR WHEELS AND HARDLY ANY POLLUTION BUT THAT’S EXTREME WE KNOW THAT USING THE SAME TECH. THAT YOU CAN BUILD SMALLER BUT VERY POWERFUL ENGINES THAT UP MPG. AND LOWER EMISSIONS IF BUILT TO RUN E-85 ALSO WITH PREMIUM FUEL BUT RISKIER ON DETONATION AS HOTTER BURN THAN ETHANOL BLEND but in the past and now we still use crap gas 86 octane and we should eliminate it and make higher octane blends and tune accordingly like when it changed from good gas in late 70s early 80s when every car dieseled and pinged and had to stop engines in gear when gas changed for the worse they also overheated on regular after that . we are adapting and growing to love it and will debut our systems at the Louisville street rod nationals to help them clean up their act and will go to fleets also. We hope blender pumps come soon so as to choose opt. performance level . We hope this e-15 passes even e- 20 as it should help cost of better fuel ,, why are we so against helping farmers and American jobs and stopping the support of people that want us dead because we have freedom of choice ??? also check cattlemen’s ass. and see they like ethanol because they get cheaper feed , huh.? we just found 15 million acers of corn and it caused corn prices to plummet so why is nobody complaining to BIG FOOD corn was over 3.00 a bushel ww2 but that was not sheld it was on the ear huh? and did food go up ,maybe we can stop paying not to plant and let them plant so we can save tax $ too .. but corn is so low now its not worth planting HUH ? also we had last year floods and all 2nd largest corn crop, one more thing when dinosaurs roamed the planet they claim earth was much warmer and that water was deaper fossilized sea life points this out and in late 70s we were worried about global cooling and and co2 being the cause , never taking into account solar activity play the largest roll in climate change as many astro phy.will prove , i don’t mind being cleaner about things we do but to punnish Americans with carbon taxes and cap and trade is ridicules ,we will give up and coming countries a pollution brake as most of them were up and coming for 3000 years some just found the wheel we were up and coming for 233 years and we should be punished SCREW YOU THAT THINK THAT ,YOU SHOULD MOVE TO NORTH KOREA OR CHINA AND BREATH DEEPLY HA. Worry about global warming and having to rename it when we never got a temp gauge with earth and we still believe that cave people melted the great lakes glaciers that were a mile deep where we live thank goodness we don’t have to deal with that because farmers find it hard to grow food in ice. Also ethanol was blamed for tortillas prices when they planted less WHITE CORN NOT YELLOW to bring the depressed corn market value up them selves but they had a drought then to which compounded the prob. GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT AND KEEP IN MIND EVERY ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SHOULD BE CLOSELY LOOKED AT AS THEY ALL HAVE A TRADE OFF , LIKE WHEN A HYBRID CRASHES AND RESCUERS CANT REACH THE ELECT. CUT OFF SO THEY DON’T DIE RESCUING YOUR SORRY BUTT. AND WHEN A LINEMAN’S TRUCK CANT START UP A HILL BECAUSE THEIRS NOT ENOUGH POWER FROM A STANDING START AND HAD TO BE PULLED UP A HILL PULLED BY A REGULAR LINE TRUCK AND PULLING HIS WEIGHT TOO. I DON’T WANT AN ELECTRIC CAR PERIOD AND 50 OF MY FRIENDS DON’T EITHER WE LOVE PISTON ENGINES AND EASY TO FUEL WITHOUT A HIGH PRESSURE HYDROGEN TANK OR ONE IN MY TOWN ABOVE GROUND ?
gerald kupeerus
WITH ALL THE RV PLANTS AROUND US CLOSED AND A 20 % UNEMPLOYMENT RATE WHEN YOU FIG . 5% OF THAT ONLY WORKING 1-2 WEEKS A MONTH AND LIKE WISE AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIERS AND MANUF. WE SHOULD HAVE THE CLEANEST AIR SINCE THE 50S SO IF MORE FARMERS PLANT LOTS OF GREEN STUFF ( OXYGEN PRODUCING PLANT LIFE ) TO MAKE CLEANER FUEL MAYBE WE CAN HAND PIC CORN TO BE GREENER TO AS THE 4,000,000. JOB THING HASN’T WORKED OUT YET ! AND WE WOULD THEN BE TAKING JOBS FROM ILLEGAL ALIENS % SORRY FOR THE RANT BUT E15 IS A GOOD THING AS IT WOULD HELP FARMERS AND ETHANOL INDUSTRY SUPPORTING AMERICAN JOBS (HINT IF YOU ELIMINATE CO2 YOU KILL PLANTS ) SO IF YOU WANT LOWER C02 TAKE ALL LIBERALS AND TREE HUGGERS AND MOVE THEM TO CHINA OR THE MOON HA.
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