Obama EPA Rushes to Impose New Ethanol Mandate

breitbart.com/Big-Government ^ | 4/25/12 | Jeff Steir

[ColdOne]

Oral arguments began last week on another controversial Obama Administration policy. It's not Obamacare in the Supreme Court, but the outcome will affect a major sector of the economy: energy. In particular, the fuel most Americans use daily.

At issue is the administration's continued abuse of science at the agency level in an effort to dictate what type of energy we use.

The Environmental Protection Agency has fast-tracked the approval of a 50 percent increase in the amount of ethanol that can be mixed into the fuels we use in our cars and other engine-run vehicles, such as boats and snowmobiles. There's nothing necessarily wrong with such a major increase in ethanol, (from 10% to 15% total,) but the law requires and common sense dictates that the EPA test the new fuel mix in all engines in which it would be used, to make sure it works properly and doesn't damage the engines. The lawsuit alleges that EPA failed to properly do so in approving use of so called E15 fuel.

For example the EPA only evaluated E15's impact on automobiles' emissions systems, rather than how it affects the entire car, "bumper to bumper," as Charles Drevna, President of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, a lead plaintiff, put it in a recent interview with the trade publication Energy and Environment News.

Perhaps even more troubling, according to Drevna, is that the EPA's "testing didn't come in until the day before they announced, or they published the regulation." There's simply no way the testing could have been fully considered (as required by law) in the next day's rule-making, not even if the bureaucrats stayed up all night before filing the paperwork.

[citizen]

Go p**s up a rope, EPA. That would now be 15% ethanol that provides me with less energy than gasoline.

[Right Wing Assault]

responsible for damaging and destroying thousands, if not millions, of pieces of home equipment

That's the plan.

[Chode]

and America takes another one in the........

[usconservative]

Y'know, like the mileage which is 3 or 4 mpg less than pure gasoline

That's exactly correct. We drove my wife's 2009 Honda Oddyssey minivan to her parent's home in Michigan's Upper Penninsula. Filled up @ home with the 10% ethanol crap that you can't avoid buying here in the People's Socialist RepubliK of Illinois.

Got 24mpg on the trip up keeping the vehicle under 70mph and on cruise control.

On the way home, we stopped at the ONE GAS STATION in Menominee, Michigan that sold PURE GAS. NO ETHANOL. Drove home into a 25-30mph HEADWIND coming up from the South, and still managed to get (drum roll.....) 27.5 MPG on the way home. Kept the vehicle under 70mph and on cruise control.

Any bets I could've gotten another mile or two on the mpg without the headwind? I bet I could've.

The more ethanol they put in the gas, the less MPG we get, and the more Gas we have to buy. Only the dumbasses in Government Central Planning would make such a stupid decision.

[Mouton]

I have a better idea, how about just locking them in garages with the engines running for a few hours. Should do the job.

[citizen]

Related article: EPA Official’s ‘Philosophy’ On Oil Companies: ‘Crucify Them’ - Just As Romans Crucified Conquered Citizens
http://cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/epa-officials-philosophy-oil-companies-crucify-them-just-romans-crucified

[Myrddin]

I have a better idea, how about just locking them in garages with the engines running for a few hours. Should do the job.

As long as you agree to personally supervise the activity from inside the garage. I'll even toss in a nice big fan to keep the engines properly cooled.

[meatloaf]

That was explained by our representative in a recent town hall meeting. The House has tried to cut the EPA’s budget to prevent some of the boarding house reach. When the Senate does nothing, the bureacracy gets funded at their previous levels.

[NormsRevenge]

corn futures leap,, poor mexicans frown..

[BfloGuy]

For awhile, a couple of years ago, I could still find real gasoline.

Me, too. I bought a used F250 4.6L two years ago when gas was right around $2.00 here in NYS. Used to get non-ethanol at Kwik-Fill and could get 22mpg on the highway.

That was economical enough for me.

Now, I have to buy the ethanol-adulterated crap, I get 17 mpg, and the price has doubled! That's just my puny story -- imagine trying to run a business in an environment where it's impossible to do basic economic calculation.