Posted on 06/28/2013 11:07:32 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
As gas stations across the country get ready to roll out gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol – and as the EPA has begun to recommend increasing the ethanol content in fuel to 30 percent – the Antique Automobile Club of America, one of the largest collector car clubs in the country, has come out in opposition to any mandate that places ethanol in automotive fuel.
“We know what E10 does to our cars; it’s very disruptive,” said Tom Cox, the president of the AACA. “So if we go to E15 – and E20 after that, I suppose – that doesn’t bode well for those of us with vintage vehicles.”
Cox and several other AACA members joined representatives from the American Motorcyclists Association and the Specialty Equipment Market Association’s SEMA Action Network (which has also recently vocalized its concerns regarding ethanol in fuel) last Wednesday in traveling to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to rally in protest against ethanol-blended gasoline. During the rally, the AACA members parked their cars on the National Mall and met with members of the Congressional Automotive Performance and Motorsports Caucus, some of whom spoke out against the use of ethanol in fuel.
According to Cox, while the AACA has been and remains to be careful to keep out of the political aspects of the issue – as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, the IRS prevents it from lobbying or endorsing political candidates – seeing the effects of ethanol-blended fuel use in collector cars, particularly on AACA tours, has motivated AACA leadership to take more of a stand in recent years.
SEMAAACArally_01_1500
“There’s a lot of reasons to be against E15,” Cox said. “It creates vapor lock, it softens rubber parts, it eats up gas tanks and carburetors by causing them to rust and corrode, it pollutes more, and it gets less fuel mileage. I think that, in essence, this constant ratcheting of the levels of ethanol in gasoline is in so many ways achieving the early vehicle retirement goals that we’ve seen come out of Washington before. In all best possible circumstances we’d like to see ethanol out of gas completely because it is destructive – there’s no question about it.”
Cox said that, as a non-profit, the AACA can, and is expected to engage in, educational efforts, so it has undertaken to educate its 62,000 members – and the elected members of the government – about the effects of ethanol on older cars. In addition to the rally, the AACA also printed a pair of editorials arguing against ethanol-blended fuel in the May/June issue of the club’s magazine, Antique Automobile.
“While there is no mandate that motorists put E10 in their collector vehicles, off-road vehicles, motorcycles or small engines, un-blended gasoline is disappearing from the marketplace,” wrote Herb Oakes, the AACA’s director of legislation, in one of the editorials. “The life span of a vehicle and equipment can be dramatically reduced with the wrong fuel, and vintage car owners could be confronted with breakdowns because of it.”
At the federal level, two pieces of legislation introduced in Congress earlier this year – House Bill 875 and Senate Bill 344 – asked the EPA to suspend the sale of E15 until the fuel could be studied further. Both of those bills remain in committee.
However, at least two states have rejected ethanol-blended fuel mandates. Earlier this month, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law a bill (HB4001) that repealed existing Florida legislation that required up to 10 percent ethanol in fuel. Late last month, Maine Governor Paul LePage signed into law a bill (LD 115) that banned all ethanol-blended fuels from sale in the state as long as at least two other New England states followed suit.
Cox said that he believes the rally last week built awareness of the issue, but it also showed that a diversity of automotive organizations (AACA has long been known as catering to the restoration crowd, while SEMA has long been known as catering to the hot rodding and customizing crowd) can come together to speak out on the issue.
UPDATE: We also learned this morning, through Automotive News, that an Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers lawsuit to block the sale of E15 was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.
ethanol’does multiple goals for the liberals.
it takes farmland away from human food crops.
it takes feed crops away from cattle.
it causes more gas to be used trucking it around for processing and adding to fuel stocks.
it pollutes groundwater more than pure gasoline does.
it gives everyone less mileage, having to buy more fuel to go the same number of miles if they cpuld have used 100% gas.
it allows fedgov subsidies for wthanol to continue - power/control.
it wears out engine components and fuel tanks faster than straight gas.
it destroys small two stroke engines.
all/of these things are positives for various liberal groups.
A more expensive fuel, with lower energy content, higher pollution emissions, that damages engines and fuel systems, while taking food away from the world’s poor?
What’s not to like?
Leave it up to socialists to gum up the works they always succeed in doing so. They are just as bad as ethanol..
FL - Rick Scott just signed a bill eliminating the ethanol mandate in gas. Meaning stations can sell real gas.
You missed the cutting into the supply of ethanol available for human consumption.
If the Federal government were REALLY enthusiastic for getting huge quantities of ethanol available, the more economically feasible course would be to take one of the fractions of natural gas, ethylene (C2H4), and use a catalyst to combine it chemically with water, to form the ethanol (C2H5OH). Not that hard to do, and it takes not one acre of farm ground out of food production.
But political science takes precedence over applied science.
Why the hell does Congress have to ask the EPA? The damn chickenshits could outlaw ethanol if they wanted too but they are too beholden to special interests; to hell with everyday Americans.
I'm really beginning to hate this government and I sometimes can't believe my own (bad)attitude anymore. What's more, I don't understand why so many Americans just keep reelecting the same corrupt bastards that just vote how their party bosses tell them too.
Yes he did and SEMA was very out front on getting it’s member network to help push that bill through the legislature. As a member of SEMA, I received several notices complete with legislators names and contact into to pass along on to my contacts.
I suppose now that manufacturers are openly informing people who own cars not made to run on E85 that their warranty’s will be voided if they use it is also helping to get the message out to John Q. Public and the Johnnies are not happy.
Critical mass is coming folks. Benghazi, IRS, DOJ, NSA, Zimmerman, and now E85 may just be the straw.
Yes I did. I'm not much of a drinker, m'self.
If the Federal government were REALLY enthusiastic for getting huge quantities of ethanol available, the more economically feasible course would be to take one of the fractions of natural gas, ethylene (C2H4), and use a catalyst to combine it chemically with water, to form the ethanol (C2H5OH). Not that hard to do, and it takes not one acre of farm ground out of food production.
But political science takes precedence over applied science.
So does buying all those farmers' votes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.