When I first read this story, I was waiting for the punchline. Unfortunately, it is all too true. AAA has now released a warning to all motorists to AVOID USING E15 GASOLINE. There are now at least ten car companies that are saying that they will void warranties if consumers use this gasoline that the government continues to push as environmentally safe and accuses AAA of being 'in the pocket of petroleum companies.'
One of the big problems also, William, is what they say is 87 octane is less than 84 actually in the E15.
I don't think it's in FL yet, Gabe. More in the mid western states.
Hey, Barbara-Jo - think it hasn't made it there yet. It is such a political animal, and not everyone is playing :)
Good morning, Ray. Many twists, this is just an obvious one.
Good morning, Ron. I was shocked at some of the things I found when reading about this. Like the LETHAL new air conditioning coolant that the children in Washington are going to required be used by next year in car AC. Amazing!
It does a lot more damage to the environment to produce the ethanol, Joel, than the gas that cars burn causes.
Absolutely, Donna. And MY discontent comes in when 'they' tell us we HAVE to use it.
then it sounds like your cars will be fine, Lizette.
That is so much of the argument, Than. They use it to save money and then pay more to make their cars run properly.
In our state 10% ethanol has been mandatory for years. Every now and then, I sneak across the border either into MA or NY for contraband gas that has no ethanol. I believe my car appreciates it as well.
Good morning, Christiansens. From the looks of things here, it seems that you would have good company on the road :)
Hey, Brian. It has not made it out to CA yet, but they're working on it.
And once the foothold is found, Richie, it is almost impossible for 'them' to let go.
I bet it does, Ed. Every winter we were required to use gas with 15% ethanol (I think that was the number). Immediately the car started choking and sputtering.
Lots of truthiness in this report; things that feel right and things I might have heard from other sources. However, it is ultimately misleading. That's one of the problems with getting news from an outlet that is owned by a corporate conglomerate (unfortunately, all of the TV news stations fall into that category!).
Oil companies did manage to convince several auto manufacturers to cry foul over the E-15 fuel, but the fact is that as more time goes on, more companies are walking back from their original opposition. The "four gallon minium" rule was actually intended to be for people buying NON E-15 fuel from blender pumps. There may be some places that have installed dedicated E-15 pumps, but that is a huge cost and I don't know of any stations that don't use blenders. The four gallon rule was to make sure nobody got too much E-15 in their lawnmowers or small motorcycle tanks, as there may be timing issues for those types of fuel systems.
As more testing is done and more good, peer-reviewed science is released, the noise and fear will die down. So far E-15 has been rigorously tested, and the only problem in nearly 3 million miles on the test track was when a deer got through a hole in the fence and ran in front of one of the cars. In meantime, we'll have to deal with growing pains from gas station owners who don't want to upgrade equipment, oil companies that don't like competition (no matter how much they talk about competiton being good for the marketplace, nobody actually likes having to compete), auto makers looking for any reason to not pay out a warranty claim, insurance companies (I'm looking at you, AAA) who see this as a great opportunity to frighten people into buying their product, and the EPA, which is firmly in the pocket of corn growers (mesquite is more efficient for creating a higher quality ethanol at lower prices, cheaper, won't raise food prices, and grows in THE DESERT) insisting on only using this one type of alternative fuel.
Thank you for your insight, Jesse. It had absolutely nothing to do with where the clip came from, which is why I also linked to the USA Today article as well. There are hundreds/thousands of sited articles and reports about what it is actually doing to automobiles. There are untold numbers of reports on what making ethanol does to the environment, and that it does more damage than what they are trying to protect. There are untold articles about subsidies and how they are affecting us. Rather than casting aspersions at the 'corporate conglomerate' that reported the news, I am much more interested at finding out about who is profiting from the insanity that we call subsidies and who makes the money on these 'developments' and whose interests are really being served.
I know that when fuel is not fully burned inside your engine. .it builds up and affects it future performance. .that must be the reason. .
There is something about the gasoline and the ethanol separating and not burning together in the E15, Fernando. It is the raw material that burns off first that is eroding the lines, hoses, and tanks.
Thanks for the tip... If any alternative fuel shows up at the gas stations I go to I will not be using it. I did not realize they are so corrosive. They should make the gas nozzles for these special blends not fit into vehicles they are not designed to be used in, like they do with the diesel nozzles. Diesel nozzles are too big to fit into regular gas using cars. If this gas blend voids the car warranty, the nozzle should not fit into the car, IMHO.
I haven't noticed this at all. I have a 2012 car but my husband drives an older one.
I'll have to stop back and read all the comments and listen to the video clips. I have no prior knowledge of this in New York. I'm not aware of this type of gas and the damage it can cause.
I checked out the article and clearly this must not have been introduced in my state because I don't recall ever seeing a e-15 pump. I guess I am more in favor of another solution then ethanol. Ethanol production is very very energy intensive and polluting and unfortunately I am in one of the hotspots of pollution here in SD. I would be more in favor of lowering speed limits to 55mph which could save the USA over a billion barrels of oil a year. This in my opinion would be a good first step with a second step to be a major increase into research of another clean energy source.
I have mass emailed this to about 30 friends as well, so everybody is reading your blog! thanks for the heads-up!
That's a great idea, Sarah and Les. But that would be prudent, right? :)))
From what I understand, Christine, there are really only a few of the newer cars that are not affected also.
Good idea, Jill.
Great comment, Rosalie, and great to see you here! It is very clearly marked with a great big yellow button (corn?) with the number 15 on it. And the pollution to produce it is much greater than what the product saves.
Thanks, Barbara-Jo! Appreciate it very much!
This is quite interesting. We are trading an apparently cleaner blend for the distruction of engines, which means more parts being put in landfills. On top of that, the ethenol blends aren't as combustible, so we are actually burning more for the same effect. This doesn't even factor in the increased resources used to grow & distribute the corn used in the ethenol.
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