MOTORCYCLE
WARNING! Feds Mandate Minimum 4 Gallon Ethanol-Blend Purchase
Bulletin: Energy department figures showed a 13-cent rise in the cost of unleaded across Texas for the week. Regulators blamed a surge in oil prices and a drought-driven rise in the cost of ethanol.
August 7, 2012 (Reprinted from American Iron Horse Magazine)
The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will require all consumers to
buy at least four gallons of gasoline from certain gas pumps after
the new E15 ethanol-gasoline blend is introduced into the market.
The
EPA revealed the requirement to the American Motorcyclist Association
in a letter dated Aug. 1, responding to AMA concerns that E15 — a
gasoline formulation that contains up to 15 percent ethanol by volume
— could be put in motorcycle and ATV gas tanks inadvertently when
consumers use blender pumps. A blender pump dispenses different fuel
blends through the same hose, and the vast majority of motorcycles
and all-terrain vehicles in use today aren’t designed to operate on
E15 fuel.
“With
E15 gasoline, our members who make a concerted effort to fuel their
motorcycles or ATVs with E10-or-less gasoline may be unknowingly
refueling with residual fuel left in the hose,” Wayne Allard, AMA
vice president for government relations, wrote in a June 20 letter to
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.
“Unlike
an automobile or SUV that has a large fuel tank, the residual fuel
left in a fueling hose could be detrimental to the performance of
motorcycle or ATV engines due to the small size of their fuel tanks
and the higher concentration of ethanol that would, therefore, be
present in the fuel,” Allard wrote.
“In
addition, the use of E15 will lower fuel efficiency and possibly
cause premature engine failure,” he wrote. “Use of E15 fuel voids
many manufacturer warranties. In off-road engines, the effects can
even be dangerous for users.”
Byron
Bunker of the EPA National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory
responded to the AMA on behalf of Jackson.
“EPA requires that
retail stations that own or operate blender pumps either dispense E15
from a dedicated hose and nozzle if able or, in the case of E15 and
E10 being dispensed from the same hose, require that at least four
gallons of fuel be purchased to prevent vehicles and engines with
smaller fuel tanks from being exposed to gasoline-ethanol blended
fuels containing greater than 10 volume percent ethanol,” Bunker
wrote.(click here for an EPA circular on E15 regulations)
“Additionally,
EPA is requiring that retail stations that offer E10 and E15 from the
same hose and nozzle use additional labeling to inform consumers
about the minimum purchase requirement,” Bunker wrote...
Secretary
of Energy Steven Chu is a nuclear physicist who is on record saying
that his personal agenda is to change American transportation
behavior by mandating smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles through
exacting personal pain at the pump, in the wallet, and on the road.
From
his official government biography:
“As
United States Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu is charged with
helping implement President Obama's ambitious agenda to invest in
clean energy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, address the
global climate crisis, and create millions of new jobs.
“Dr.
Chu is the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics (1997) and
received numerous other awards. He has devoted his recent scientific
career to the search for new solutions to our energy and climate
challenges - a mission he continues with even greater urgency as
Secretary of Energy.
“Prior
to his appointment, Dr. Chu was the Director of the Department of
Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where he led the lab in
pursuit of alternative and renewable energy technologies. He also
taught at the University of California as a Professor of Physics and
Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology. Previously, he held
positions at Stanford University and AT&T Bell Laboratories.”
Lisa
P. Jackson is a career environmental regulator. Her former job as
Director of Environmental Regulation in New Jersey came through an
appoointment by Gov. John S. Corzine. According to official
literature, “Serving in that position, Jackson led a staff of 2,990 professionals responsible for protecting, sustaining, and enhancing water, air, and land of New Jersey and preserving the state's wealth of natural and historic resources... As commissioner in July 2006, she had to shut down all state parks and beaches due to the state governmental shutdown in relation to the state budget delay.(click here for a previous report)
"Since
being named President Obama’s cabinet member in charge of
environmental protection, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson has been
named one of Newsweek’s “Most Important People in 2010,”
featured on Time Magazine’s 2010 and 2011 lists of the “100 Most
Influential People in the World”, listed in Essence Magazine’s
“40 Women Who Have Influenced the World,” and profiled in O
Magazine for her work to protect our nation’s air, water and land
from pollution that threatens human health.
"Jackson leads EPA’s efforts to protect the health and environment for all Americans. She and a staff of more than 18,000 professionals are working across the nation to usher in a green economy, address health threats from pollution in our air, water and land, and renew the public’s trust in EPA’s work.
"Raised
a proud resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, Administrator Jackson is
a summa cum laude graduate of Tulane University and earned a master’s
degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University. In 2011,
she received an honorary doctorate degree from Florida A&M
University. She has also received an honorary law degree from Pace
Law School.
"She
started with the EPA as a staff-level scientist in 1987 and spent the
majority of her career working in EPA’s Region 2 office in New
York. In 2002, Jackson joined the New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection and was appointed Commissioner of the agency
in 2006.
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/fuels/renewablefuels/index.htm
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