Minnesota Governor wants regular gas ethanol blends increased to 20%
The Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, wants to see the nominal amount of ethanol in regular gasoline blends increased from 10 percent (pretty much the national standard) to 20 percent and Pawlenty's office released a report this week in support of that idea. Researchers at University of Minnesota and Minnesota State University conducted a study evaluating the performance of forty pairs of vehicles that were operated on E0 (i.e., biofuel-free gasoline) and E20 fuels. They found no statistical difference in the performance of cars over the 13-month study period. Based on this study, the researchers are declaring that blending twenty percent alcohol into pump gasoline won't cause any problems.
Carmakers disagree however, claiming that anything beyond a ten percent blend could cause problems for cars in the field due to corrosion. The cars tested in the study were relatively new and recent model cars would likely have few, if any, problems running on E20. The issue lies in the fact that with close to 300 million cars on the road in the U.S. now, and a median age of nine and a half years, half of those cars are over a decade old. Most of those cars very likely will have issues with E20. There is also the issue of whether we should be pushing harder for more widespread use of ethanol until cellulosic sources become commercially available. I'll leave that argument for another time. None of this however is likely to stymie any politician promoting the products of his state.
[Source: USA Today, Via The Truth About Cars]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike 2:32PM (3/10/2008)
There is no doubt that ethanol has it's problems but at least we can control it. To me getting off oil is about gaining control. Who cares if it has some problems. If it can help buffer the US economy from going further into the toilet than go go go.
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smog 2:46PM (3/10/2008)
"if it can help buffer the US economy from going further into the toilet than go go go."
It will help you getting broke when you get to the grocery store. bread almost doubled it's price since last year. thank you Ethanol.
Better force the auto market to sell more efficient cars
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MikeW 2:58PM (3/10/2008)
GM, Ford, and Chrysler will just stop selling new vehicles in Minnesota if this happens.
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Wildgoosechase 2:59PM (3/10/2008)
Study after study has proven that food prices have increased due to the price of oil, not ethanol. The ethanol industry simply is not mature enough to have that effect but diesel prices are. Bio-diesel is a perfect fit to solve that problem.
As far as going to 20% ethanol I'm not a fan of yet until we have a long term study. Auto manufacturers have to warranty the emission equipment for 10 years, they can’t risk corrosion affecting it.
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Mulad 3:00PM (3/10/2008)
Now we're blaming higher bread costs on ethanol? I guess I don't know the breakdowns of ethanol feedstocks, but I do know that most bread doesn't have corn in it...
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rgseidl 3:22PM (3/10/2008)
Increasing the alcohol content could cause certain fuel system components to wear out at an accelerated rate or fail due to swelling. This is why the study was conducted. Unfortunately, problems sometimes take several years to manifest themselves, so 13 months may have been to short a time frame.
In any case, official fuel compatibility certification for legacy and new models should come from the vehicle manufacturer, not the fuel industry.
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Kardax 3:33PM (3/10/2008)
MikeW: If any automaker stopped selling cars in Minnesota, the remaining ones would gladly pick up the slack. They're not going to simply way away from a big market.
rgseidl: The problem is that automakers are never going to say their cars are capable of any ethanol amount (due to warranty concerns) and ethanol people will always say it's fine. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
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Sam Abuelsamid 3:38PM (3/10/2008)
Mulad, the cause of rising bread prices is two-fold. The rising cost of oil is one part due to the need to use fuel to cultivate and transport wheat. The other is skyrocketing wheat prices caused by farmers shifting fields from wheat to corn production.
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KarenRei 3:42PM (3/10/2008)
http://www.kansascityfed.org/RegionalAffairs/MainStreet/MSE_0108.pdf
The reasons for high food price inflation, which is tracking about double the national inflation rate:
* Increasing marketting costs
* Increased energy costs
* Increased labor costs
* Increasing world population
* Increasingly wealthy world population, able to afford more of less efficient foods like meat
* Crop prices, and more notably, meat prices
The biggest factor over the long term seems to be labor costs, which have grown from 28% of the cost of food in the 70s to 38.5% today. Energy costs seem to be bouncing back; in the 70s and 80s, they were 9% of the total, fell, but are now back up to 8%. Food prices reportedly rise 0.52% for every 1% rise in energy prices, so energy costs are a big driver in the short term. Farm commodity prices have fallen as a share of total food costs, which would indicate that biofuels, at least so far, are *not* a particularly major problem for foodstuffs in general. It's particularly notable with cereal and bakery crops, for which farm commodity prices account for only 6% of total prices.
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rgseidl 4:21PM (3/10/2008)
@ MikeW -
not true. If forced to do so by the government, auto makers can and will certify compatibility with alternate fuels even for legacy vehicles, though they will usually err on the side of caution.
Case in point: Germany is currently preparing for a transition from E5 to E10 blends for its most popular grades of gasoline. The German auto manufacturer's association VDA initially provided a very low estimate for the number of legacy vehicles that might encounter compatibility issues. In response to a challenge by the driver's association ADAC and others, VDA's members were commanded to double-check their data - this process is ongoing.
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Matt K 4:58PM (3/10/2008)
Here's an interesting article. Projected 75 billion gallons a year from stuff that we don't eat. Hopefully it pans out.
http://www.physorg.com/news124385238.html
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Bob Moffitt (Bob from ALAMN) 9:48AM (3/11/2008)
I would like to see more of the estimated 160,000 flex fuel vehicles currently on the road in Minnesota using E85 on a regular basis.
There is a provision in the E20 law that if E85 sales reach 10% of the gasoline sold in the state in December 2010, the E20 provision will not begin.
That means E85 sales would have to reach 460 gallons a year. Last year, Minnesotans bought 21 million gallons of E85, so it's a steep challenge.
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Coleman Jones 10:59AM (3/11/2008)
I work on Biofuels Implementation for GM Powertrain and am very interested in these studies. GM is constantly supporting the production and distribution of ethanol and we feel it's the best solution for our energy needs right now, but we do need to make sure E20 has been thoroughly tested. More long-term testing is still needed to measure things like driveability, tailpipe emissions and emissions control systems. The Minnesota studies only tested the cars for 3000 hours, which is a lot less than what an OEM requires. I encourage them to keep testing and keep learning more about ethanol.
I wrote a blog for GMnext.com addressing these issues. You can check it out here: http://blog.gmnext.com/?p=93
Coleman Jones
Manger of Biofuels Implementation, GM Powertrain
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Bill D 12:39AM (1/24/2009)
Coleman, of course GM supports this. Its not enough that they build cars that wear out too soon and require constant maintenance. They want us to put this crap in our tanks knowing that this also will lead to more maintenance by the consumer. There are good reasons why GM is at the door of bankruptcy and has their hand outstretched to the Federal Government. I'll keep buying Hondas and Toyotas rather than the built in obsolescence , rolling pieces of sheet metal they pass off as cars !
Ken Jr. 11:35AM (3/20/2008)
Don't forget:
. Lower gas mileage
. Higher cost per mile
. More emissions
. Less corn grown for food
. Higher price for corn for people
. Higher price for corn for livestock
. Less corn for export
Is it worth it?
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Bill D 10:53PM (1/23/2009)
The government is forcing us to put this crap in our cars, boats and small engines. Always ' Big Brother' thinks he knows what is best for us and will find a way to force us to comply. Most people are so apathetic that they just go with the flow. Let those who want to burn E85 do so but don't force the rest of us further into debt with maintenance problems to our boats and cars and other small engines caused by this crap. I'm now getting 3 miles less per gallon. You are paying for all this as the give-away government subsidizes ethanol from YOUR taxes while at the same time protecting the farmers who are paid to grow ethanol corn by putting a tax on imported ethanol. The government really screws up everything they touch !
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