The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 356
stop at the pump more often. Ethanol contains 33% less energy than traditional gasoline (and is more expensive when adjusted for this), meaning
consumers will get fewer miles per gallon. Unfortunately, 95% of consumers surveyed by AAA were not familiar with E15 meaning that travelers
could unintentionally fill up on the fuel, and end up spending more on gas
and potentially wrecking their engines.
“More and more ethanol is being forced into U.S. gasoline every year as
a result of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) - a policy that is diverting
40% of all U.S. corn to use in fuel instead of food. The RFS is also increasing prices for meat, poultry, and dairy products, and will make Memorial Day cookouts more expensive. Since the RFS was expanded in
2007, prices for cereal and bakery products have risen 77%; prices for
meat, poultry, fish, and eggs have increased 78%; and prices for vegetable oil and fats (e.g., butter) are up by 444%.”
To begin with, I don’t understand the purpose of even including this information
in a pre-holiday AAA travel press release. It’s sort of like giving some upcoming
motion picture preview information and then warning America about how much
toilet paper will be used and wasted in the theater restrooms. It was a puzzling
combination of issues, but as you'll read below I later learned why there was
the mash-up of the divergent messages.
But for now, let me move on to the heart of the matter. The anti-ethanol information points provided in the press release are either lies, gross exaggerations,
misstatements, or all three.
1. The press release implies that E15 will be used by a significant number of
Americans. If this was actually true, it would be great news to the ethanol industry. However, so far E15’s availability is so limited in America that contemplating its use this weekend is very close to “none” (if viewed on an overall fuelsto-be-purchased pie chart). Consequently, even if E15 had the negative effects
that are claimed – which it doesn’t – the overwhelming majority of holiday travelers are more likely to encounter a visitor from Mars this weekend.
2. While it is true that ethanol has less “energy” per gallon than gasoline when
calculated according to BTU-style measurements, the energy content has nothing to do with why a high ethanol level blend might deliver fewer miles per gallon
of fuel. The vehicles will get less mileage because the engines are optimized
for gasoline. If the same engines were optimized for ethanol they would get as
much or more miles by using ethanol. Even flex-fuel vehicles are optimized to
