New book exposes EPA, oil industry’s role in ensuring the dominance of high-emission fuels: Gasolinegate debuts
In Washington, emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that EPA and oil interests collaborated to manipulate computer models used to certify fuel emissions and set standards, say authors Burl Haigwood and Doug Durante in their explosive new chronicle of the“stranglehold on the motor fuel market. They contend it led to consumer gasoline containing unnecessarily high levels of benzene and other carcinogens that endanger public health when cleaner alternatives are available and even required under existing law.”
The new book is Gasolinegate, and is out this week and available via Amazon as well as public libraries.
Authors Burl Haigwood and Doug Durante base their chronicle on dozens of interviews and firsthand accounts of “inaction by Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and obstruction by the oil industry.” Sadly, they state that “the EPA [had] the authority, and dozens of opportunities in the past four decades to establish standards for cleaner, safer domestic fuels – but failed.
The cost? According to Gasolinegate, consumers currently pay about $15 per gallon for gasoline when including total societal costs, e.g., national security, increased health care costs from pollution, the impact of climate change, imports, and federal subsidies for fossil fuels.
With over 300 citations, the book details dozens of opportunities the EPA had to lead the effort to establish cleaner and safer domestically produced fuels – but failed. The book also reveals how emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act revealed the oil industry collaborating with the EPA to manipulate computer models to make gasoline appear cleaner than alternatives.
The authors noted that while electric vehicles will play a role in the future, we will be using trillions of gallons of gasoline for decades. There are no reasonable justifications to prevent the EPA from cleaning up gasoline immediately with their existing authority.
A fix to the Problems of the Past
The authors found that “iInnovative solutions to replace benzene such as the Next Generation Fuels Act introduced in Congress would create a pathway for High Octane Low Carbon gasoline blends using renewable ethanol, providing immediate climate, health, and cost benefits as EVs overcome the many challenges they face.
Early praise for Gasolinegate
Gasolinegate is the first comprehensive book to chronicle decades of inaction by the petroleum industry to clean up its gasoline and the failure of Congress and EPA to make them do so, resulting in lives lost, dollars wasted, and a weakened nation.
– The Hon. E. Benjamin Nelson, Former United States Senator and Governor of Nebraska, Chair, Governors’ Biofuels Coalition Author, Death of the Senate.
Gasolinegate is an information milestone of how big oil set out to brutally control the energy market which buttresses recent 2023 revelations of how they subverted response to global climate change science. Political strong-arming and deceit adds true color to this intriguing story, made public
– Scott Sklar, Professor, The George Washington University (GWU) and co-author The Forbidden Fuel: Power Alcohol in the 20th Century.
If Woodward and Bernstein revealed the machinations behind the Watergate break-in, Burl Haigwood and Doug Durante have taken away our rose-colored glasses in regard to the adverse real world economic, environmental and political consequences of reliance on polluting petro fuels.
– Edwin Rothschild, Former Executive Director, Citizen Action
Years before The Auto Channel and I jumped into the ethanol vs. gasoline fray, Doug Durante and Burl Haigwood were doing the heavy lifting to try to make America and the world a healthier and safer place. Gasolinegate provides extensive and significant background in understanding what should have happened and why it didn’t. I consider this to be essential reading.
– Marc J. Rauch, Author, The Ethanol Papers and Yes, Tin Lizzie Was an Alcoholic, Co-Publisher The Auto Channel
Gasolinegate delivers the truth and nothing but truth. It exposes how EPA has let down the people they were created to protect, while succumbing to the will of BIG OIL and environmentalist.
– Doug Sombke, President, South Dakota Farmers Union.
This book is a long overdue wakeup call that alerts Americans to the invisible, pervasive, and extremely lethal nanoparticles they and their children are forced to breathe in on a 24/7 basis, with no means of escape. In fact, contrary to EPA’s assurances, modern advanced engine designs make these lethal emissions even worse unless the compounds are replaced. Doug and Burl provide a roadmap for how to put an end to the enormous social and economic damages imposed by gasoline Benzene compounds.
– David E. Hallberg, President, Dakota AG Energy, LLC, Founder and former CEO, Renewable Fuels Association.
Authors Burl Haigwood and Doug Durante bring us the riveting, untold story of how the proper development of alternatives to gasoline has been blocked by purposely built misconception, prejudice, and blunt lack of information, costing the American public billions of dollars, and causing significant damage to US public health, economy and energy security
– Plinio Nastari, President, DATAGRO Group & IBIO Brazilian Institute of Bioenergy & Bioeconomy
Gasolinegate is a comprehensive, compelling review of how EPA has failed to enforce air quality legislation intended to protect human health and the environment. The EPA’s willful disregard of federal fuel and air quality regulations has helped to enrich the petroleum industry while undermining human health and environmental goals.
– Todd Sneller, former Administrator, Nebraska Ethanol Board
Reaction from the stakeholders
“We think it is fitting to finally tell this story today, here at Freedom Plaza, when we honor our military and their sacrifices to defend our freedom and personal mobility. So much of our presence in the Middle East and worldwide is to ensure the continued flow of oil, and we remain under the thumb of OPEC and many hostile nations. When considering the total society costs of gasoline, public health, defense, and federal subsidies, to name just a few, consumers are paying over $15 per gallon.” said Burl Haigwood.
Durante added, “It is indefensible that the petroleum industry still has a defacto 90% monopoly on transportation fuels with gasoline. The lack of consumer choice empowers them to charge the public whatever they want. We looked at the history of energy and environmental laws and regulations that should have created a truly free market. Instead, oil interests have suppressed every alternative and helped bury them under EPA regulations.” He added that Henry Ford designed the first automobiles to run on renewable ethanol, which the U.S. could produce in abundance. “Innovative solutions to replace benzene such as the Next Generation Fuels Act introduced in Congress would create a pathway for High Octane Low Carbon gasoline blends using renewable ethanol, providing immediate climate, health, and cost benefits as EVs overcome the many challenges they face.”
Joining the authors at a Memorial Day launch event was Washington, D.C. Representative Oye Owolewa, who reminded reporters that cleaning up gasoline needs to be an Environmental Justice priority. Vehicles emitting unnecessarily high levels of toxic fine particulates that lead to many respiratory and neurological diseases should not continue to be ignored.
Representative Owolewa stated, “I am here today with some of my friends in the local environmental community because we are very concerned about inner-city residents who are particularly vulnerable to high concentrations of auto emissions in urban areas and near major highways. As documented in Gasolinegate, EPA acknowledges those emissions result in significant health problems. While we work here in Washington and other cities to develop alternative fuels, cleaning up gasoline should be a priority, given the millions of cars driven daily. President Biden has the authority to achieve this low-hanging fruit environmental justice objective with the stroke of his pen.”
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