The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 340
argument about corn are preposterously puerile. In fact, if you live in a
cold climate and your fuel tank and lines have a tendency to collect condensation (water), which would then freeze and cause real damage, the
solution is to put Dry Gas in the fuel tank. Dry Gas is alcohol. Alcohol is
ethanol. Ethanol "absorbs" the water moisture.
“Fuel left in an unused engine for an extended period of time can break
down and cause a starting or running problem. This is true of all fuels,
including and especially gasoline, which leaves gummy varnish-like deposits. Sta-Bil, another product used to stabilize the gasoline left in
dormant engines also contains alcohol to help prevent the gummy buildup. And again, alcohol is ethanol. (See Sta-Bil footnote at bottom of this
chapter)
“E15 will not damage the engines of vehicles older than 2012. It has been
extensively tested. It can be safely used in all modern gasoline-powered
vehicles manufactured since the early 1990s, whether they are "flex-fuel"
vehicles or not. Incidentally, when the EPA conducted their tests on E15
and gave their "clean bill of health," they also tested E20 and had the
same positive conclusions.
“I have been test-driving vehicles for 25 years and have regularly used
various blend levels of gasoline and ethanol since the time they were
made available in California with no negative reactions. Furthermore, I
own and drive a non-flex fuel 2002 Ford Taurus that I run on high blend
levels of gasoline and ethanol. My vehicle suffers from no problems that
are not normally associated with all gasoline-powered vehicles."
I waited a day for their individual or collective reply. In the meantime, I went
back to the November 30th AAA editorial and then studied the subsequent December 13th AAA story that triggered the FOX interview.
On Friday, January 4th, I sent the following email to Michael Green, Manager
of AAA Public Relations (Michael Green is listed on the AAA webpage as the
contact person for more information about the stories, although the author of
the two editorials is identified as Robert Darbelnet, CEO and president of AAA).
“Yesterday, I was made aware of a video story produced by Melissa Francis and FOX News that was based upon either the above titled AAA editorial written by your organization's CEO, or a very similar earlier AAA
editorial that was released on or about November 30, 2012. By the way,
