The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 341
please feel free to share this email with Robert Darbelnet and any other
AAA staff member.
“In the video, Ms. Francis introduced a guest, Lauren Fix, to comment on
and explain the "warnings" made in your editorial. Although neither Ms.
Francis nor Ms. Fix identified Ms. Fix as an official AAA spokesperson,
she seems to have virtually acted in that capacity…
“I found almost everything that Ms. Fix had to say about ethanol to be
either a gross lie or a recitation of typical bad propaganda that has been
spread by the oil industry and its lackeys over the past 80+ years. In a
separate email, I made my opinion known to both Ms. Fix and Ms. Francis…
“Michael, I would imagine that unless you can confirm Ms. Fix as an official spokesperson for AAA that you will not have any comments to make
regarding her comments, and that's fine since the point of this email is
not to get the AAA reaction to her comments. I'm simply including this
episode as background for the questions that I do have regarding the
above-mentioned AAA editorial.
“My questions to you are:
“1. What oil-industry-independent "research-to-date" was Mr. Darbelnet
citing that "...raises serious concerns that E15...could cause accelerated
engine wear and failure, (and) fuel system damage...?"
“2. What information do you have, other than unsupported oil-industry
claims, that the EPA did not conduct tests sufficient to determine the
safety of using E15 in gasoline-powered passenger vehicles manufactured in the past two decades?
“3. Does AAA not consider that the independent E15 testing conducted
by Ricardo (findings released September 2010) to be significant confirmation that E15 is safe for all modern gasoline-powered vehicles?
“4. In paragraph 8 of the editorial, Mr. Darbelnet states that "Some of
those supporting E15 admit the fuel may cause damage," and you give
the example that "...some underground storage tank systems, both new
and used, exhibited reduced levels of safety and performance when exposed to E15." Given that all fuel underground storage tank systems
