Jon Christian Ryter's Conservative World

Eagle

Internet Articles (2014)
Internet Articles (2013)
Internet Articles (2012)
Internet Articles (2011)
Internet Articles (2010)
Internet Articles (2009)
Internet Articles (2008)
Internet Articles (2007)
Internet Articles (2006)
Internet Articles (2005)
Internet Articles (2004)
Internet Articles (2003)
Internet Articles (2002)
Internet Articles (2001)

From The Mailbag

Think of E15 ethanol as Agent Orange for your car. Just as Vietnam War-era Monsanto, Diamond Shamrock and Dow Chemical created variations of the herbicide defoliant, Agent Orange, and used it to destroy the foliage that made it easier for the enemy to hide in the jungles of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, a second chemical, Agent Blue (cacody oxide—a liquid poison made from potassium and arsenic), was used to destroy the food crops of the Vietnamese people. What became known as the rainbow herbicides attacked not only the food delivery system of the Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian people but, in essence, the heart or, if you will, the engine of those nations as well. Where the fuel that powers motor vehicles is gasoline, the fuel that powers an army is food.

Agent Orange, which was touted to the American people as a safe defoliant like the stuff you use at home, was made lethal when phenoxyl (2,4-dichlorophenoxyl acid [known as 2,4-D] and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyl acetic [2,4,5-T]) overheated, creating 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD). TCDD cause cancer, nervous system disorders and severe respiratory problems that affected and killed an unknown amount of US military personnel. Over 4.3 million Vietnamese civilians were also exposed to the chemicals. Three million men, women and children were infected.

While the US government estimated the Vietnamese civilian population death toll at about a half million, its important to note that TCDD is not excreted from the human body—which pretty much says that Agent Orange ultimately played a role in the deaths of those 3 million Asians who did not start, or participate in, the War in Vietnam. Likewise, it played a role in the shortened lifespans of every American military person who was exposed to the vapors of the over 20 million gallons of Agent Orange that defoliated much of Southeast Asia from 1962 to 1971.

I drew this comparison between Agent Orange and the rainbow defoliants not because they are germane to a discussion about automotive fuels, but because I want you to remember one important things that ties the rainbow herbicides to E15: The US military and the White House, from 1962 to 1971, lied to us about Agent Orange because we learned of its existence. They didn't lie to us about Agent Blue until 1971 because—you guessed it—we didn't learn about it until 1971. Today, they are lying about E15 because the Obama Administration is determined to put it in every car in America, regardless of the age of the vehicle and how much damage the E15 will do. Fixing your car, or junking it, will be your problem because your car's manufacturer has already denied liability and its a certainty the EPA has none.

Today, the EPA is telling the American people that E15 is perfectly safe based on a myriad of "tests" conducted by Growth Energy™, a K Street environmental lobbyist whose clients include the ethanol industry and Archer Daniel Midland-type mega-corn farmers with direct access to the Obama Administration. The EPA's assurances are a lot like Barack Obama's "...if you like your current health insurance, you can keep it' and if you like your current doctor, you can keep him."

In 2007 Growth Energy applied to the Bush-43 Administration for a waiver to produce 15% ethanol gasoline. They didn't get it. The automotive industry said that E15 ethanol would not only destroy the fuel injection system in all current model cars, but that the heavier ethanol would immediately fall to the bottom of the gas tank resulting in the engine burning what amounted to 100% ethanol. The ethanol level would be destructive to the fuel injectors and the car's engine as well, particularly when the high octane E100 burned off and car's engine would not be able to perform well on the much lower octane gasoline (that would likely be 83 octane or less. Traditional budget priced gasoline is usually 87 octane.)

On Mar. 9, 2009 Growth Energy's president, Tom Buis, filed a 211(f)(4) waiver to Obama EPA Director Lisa Jackson that would allow him to produce 15% ethanol based, his petition said, on existing EPA guidelines. Jackson responded to Buis on April 21, asking Growth Energy to supply the documentation to show that 15% ethanol (E15) would not damage the fuel injection systems of motor vehicles.

In a hand-delivered letter to Jackson dated July 17, 2009 Buis offered his "evidence" that E15 would not harm any vehicles. On page 12 of his report, Growth Energy said it had tested over 100 vehicles and small gasoline engines including a Honda™ gas generator, one Weedeater™ grass blower and four Stihl™ grass trimmers dating from 1978 to 2007 with E15, E10 and gasoline with other levels of ethanol with the engines running, Growth Energy noted in the document, a collective equivalent to a million miles. In addition to the 100 models listed on page 12 of his declaratory statement, Growth Energy noted that "...the Waiver involved thousands of hours on more than 100 engines." If the tests were "idle" tests, and all motors were tested for equal amounts of time, then each engine was run for about 500 hours during which time, the waiver statement noted that not one vehicle or engine experienced problems with fuels containing up to 30% ethanol.

On page 19 of the waiver report, Growth Energy commented on several third party waiver statements of tests on E10 to E30 ethanol studies "...result[ed] in no difference driveability when compared to E-0." In point of fact, the auto industry is now discovering that E15 is highly corrosive and will damage fuel lines, emissions systems and the engines of cars. Consumers who use E15 are going to be hurt financially because a growing number of auto manufacturers have issued warnings to owners of their vehicles that they will not cover fuel related claims if the consumer puts E15 ethanol in their gas tanks.

When AAA's President and CEO Robert Darbelnet initially broke the warning that E15 is highly corrosive and will (not may) damage your car's fuel system and your engine—right down to eating away the gaskets that seal the other components which are being corroded, the media asked the EPA how they could approve something so corrosive. The EPA responded that they'd done extensive testing, but it's impossible to do years of testing in months.

They added that their testing has shown no engine wear difference between E15, E10 or E0. When you look at what little E15 data is available to the public from the EPA, it appears that engine tests per vehicle, or small yard use gasoline engines, likely amounted to less than 500 hours. Let's say you work locally, have one family vehicle which you drive less than 15,000 miles per year. You average 1,250 miles a month or 312 miles per week. That means you average about 6 hours a week behind the wheel of your car, with some of that time idling at traffic lights. Yet, AAA, and most of the automobile manufacturers know that ethanol damages your car's fuel delivery system as well as the engine of your vehicle—in cars driven considerably less than the test time their reports suggested.

Yet, on Oct. 13, 2010 the Obama EPA announced that "...In response to a request by Growth Energy and 54 ethanol manufacturers under the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted two partial waivers that taken together allow but do not require the introduction into commerce of gasoline that contains greater than 10% ethanol [E10] and up to 15% ethanol (E15) for use in model year 2001 and newer light-duty motor vehicles, subject to certain conditions."

The only actual research that the EPA did according to the footnotes at the end of this EPA report was to "...evaluate the information submitted by the Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy..." (not tear down the engines and fuel injectors to physically determine what types of damages, if any, existed). Which is why when E15 very quickly proved to be the Agent Orange of renewable fuels, the EPA has opted to use the "deliberate lie defense" like Obama did with the IRS-Tea Party scandal; the ATF-DOJ-State Department "Fast & Furious" scandal (which Obama planned to use to gut the 2nd Amendment when he signed the UN Small Arms Treaty which will give the United Nations control over the availability of all firearms in the United States); the Benghazi scandal and, of course, the NSA spying on Americans scandal.

It is interesting to note that E15 ethanol is so corrosive that they have to haul it to service stations in stainless steel tanker trucks. Because both E10 and E15 ethanol is much heavier than traditional gasoline "phase separation" occurs when E15 is added to gasoline containing E10. The ethanol separates from the gasoline and sinks to the bottom of your gas tank. What your fuel injectors pull fuel into the engine of your car it's now E100—100% corn fuel, the most corrosive hybrid fuel you can put in your car.

It is also important to note when you drive into gas stations selling E30 and E85 biofuels, you have to be driving a flex-fuel vehicle before you can safely use them. Flex fuel vehicles [FFV] are build to withstand the engine and fuel system damage caused by corn fuel (and you thought ethanol was safe for your car). Silly you.

Every major car manufacturer in the world now offers at least one FFV model. And just about every auto manufacturer: BMW, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Kia, Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo, and a host of others, have issued warnings to consumers who own their products that if they use E15 not only will they not warrant the fuel delivery system in their branded vehicle, using E15 fuel will void the vehicle's warranty completely.

If this product is so bad, why is it being sold? The short answer? Because Barack Obama is pushing it. In his mind, this is the best way to justify shutting down fracking, oil pipelines from Canada, drilling for oil along the continental shelf and in the Gulf of Mexico—and at the same time, keeping his anti-fossil fuel donor base happy. And in closing, remember the $956 billion Farm Bill that Obama just signed on Feb. 7, 2014? It took four years to get this bill signed not because of Obama's refusal to sign a bill that cut $8 billion in Food Stamp subsidies, but because of his demand that Congress greatly increase subsidies to corn farmers in order to produce enough ethanol to replace every Exxon gas station in the country with a Jolly Green Giant gas station on every street corner.