The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 358
U.S. government testing has proven that E15 (and E20) will not damage gasoline-powered vehicles manufactured after at least the year 2001. Testing conducted by Ricardo Laboratories, the world’s most respected private fuel testing
company has proven that E15 will not damage passenger vehicles manufactured since the early 1990s. And historic testing conducted on pure ethanol and
various blends of ethanol-gasoline for more than 100 years have proven that
ethanol does no more damage to an internal combustion engine than gasoline,
and in fact that ethanol is safer to use than gasoline.*
6. The press release then trots out the old, discredited, food-vs.-fuel argument
to try and blame higher food prices and world hunger on corn-based ethanol.
American farmers grow as much corn as they do because there is a market for
ethanol. If there was no market for ethanol the farmers would not grow as much
corn; it’s just that simple.
Anti-ethanol forces create the image that corn targeted for consumption at Memorial Day or 4th of July picnics or for starving third-world people is suddenly
redirected to the greedy ethanol producers. This is just not the case. The overwhelming majority of the corn is grown because of known demand from ethanol
producers.
Food prices have increased because of “transportation costs” but it is not because the corn is being used to produce ethanol. The food prices have increased because of higher oil-based transportation fuel costs: gasoline and diesel. Food costs have also increased because of marketing costs which have
often been related to packaging cost increases. One of the reasons for packaging cost increases is the higher printing costs due to inks costing more. The ink
is manufactured from petroleum oil. Increases in the price of oil are pushing up
food prices, not ethanol production. In any event, ethanol can be produced from
many more raw materials than corn, so if AAA had any concern for the American public, but still didn’t like corn, they would advocate the use of other items
– many of which are non-edible materials.
The Same Old Story
This isn’t the first time that AAA has carried water for the oil industry. AAA’s
efforts to mislead the public about ethanol dates back to at least the 1930s when
they staged comparative testing and then doctored the results.
Just this past winter, AAA issued two E15 warnings. These warnings became
the subject of a FOX News broadcast that only exacerbated the lies and misinformation contained in the AAA warnings. The Auto Channel challenged FOX
