The E15 Farce - How It Is Actually Increasing Our Dependence On Foreign Oil

After reading this article hopefully you’ll agree that we finally found something that both supporters and opponents of global warming can agree upon. We need to stop the production of corn-based E15 because this product harms both the planet and your wallet. It’s time for science to prevail over myths and political nonsense.

Using BTU rating (a basis of determining energy content of a fuel), we will look at how we are actually using more gas by switching to E15. The typical BTU Rating per gallon of regular gasoline is 114,100 BTU. The BTU Rating per gallon of E15 (85-percent gasoline and 15-percent ethanol) is 81,800 BTU. Therefore to produce the same amount of energy as one gallon of gasoline it will require 1.40 gallons of E15.

To put that in perspective, let’s take the example of two neighbors that both have identical vehicles except that one uses regular gasoline and the other uses E15. For the sake of argument let’s say both vehicles get 30 miles per gallon. On the weekend both families decide to take a trip from Jacksonville to Orlando for a weekend outing. The total mileage for the trip will be around 450 miles including mileage around town.

The Johnson Family, using regular gasoline priced at $2.50 a gallon, will require 15 gallons of gas for the trip therefore costing them $37.50 in fuel costs.

The Crader family, using the E15 gasoline priced at $2.50 also, will require 21 gallons of gas (since the BTU output is much smaller hence 1.4 times 15 gallon) therefore costing them $52.50 in fuel costs. This results in an increase to my wallet of $15. OK so it costs more but it must be good, right? And it must be saving our oil inventories by keeping demand low.

Wrong… and now this should get the support of the global-warming crowd. Of the 21 gallons of E15 used by the Crader family, its content by volume is 17.85 gallons gasoline and 3.15 gallons ethanol (using 85% gas and 15% ethanol). Ooops… so by saving the planet using E15 you actually used 2.85 gallons more gasoline than the person using gasoline alone, in this the case the Johnsons. This does not include the energy to produce and deliver the ethanol.

If anyone can tell me how this will make us less depended on foreign oil, I am waiting for the answer. The EPA has extended deadline for comments on their ill-advised proposal to raise the ethanol content in gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent. Based on both my above examples and a California study that shows that burning ethanol is actually more harmful to the earth than gasoline, you need to contact the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the President and all your members of Congress and let them know you want the proper thing done, which is not to raise the ethanol content of gasoline, but remove it entirely.

The EPA can be contacted through its Web site at www.epa.gov or by calling (202) 554-1600 (Reference: Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OAR-2009-0211).

President Barack Obama's staff can be reached at (202) 456-1414.