Today in Biofuels Opinion: “Under a proposal being studied by the EPA, [E15 ethanol] would not be allowed for use in models more than a few years old or in equipment such as chain saws or lawnmowers.”

Philip Brasher, Des Moines Register: “Under a proposal being studied by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, [E15 ethanol] would not be allowed for use in models more than a few years old or in equipment such as chain saws or lawnmowers, because of questions about whether they would be harmed by the higher ethanol content…An ethanol industry organization, Growth Energy, said in a statement that it “doesn’t seem necessary or practical” to have different standards for ethanol content. But EPA officials say it will take considerable time and expense to do the research necessary to ensure that all the cars now on the road wouldn’t be harmed by the E15 or E20…However, EPA officials say they are aware of the difficulty of trying to restrict the sale of E15 to E20 to newer cars.

From the March issue of Ecological Applications: “Converting set-asides to corn-ethanol production is an inefficient and expensive greenhouse gas mitigation policy that should not be encouraged until ethanol-production technologies improve.”

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NathanSchock | Mar 3, 2009 | Reply

I got to the second paragraph of the study and stopped reading when I saw that they included GHG emissions reductions of 20% for corn ethanol, which is an estimate based on data from up to several years ago. A study from the University of Nebraska used recent data and found a 48-59% decrease in GHG emissions. If they’re not going to look at the recent data, I’m not going to look at their study.