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The Games They’ll Play to Keep Us Addicted to Oil

August 27, 2010

           

The Big Oil Status Quo coalition is up to their old games again.  They are deploying every stall tactic they can think of to keep the EPA from making a decision that will ultimately help reduce this country's dependence on environmentally unfriendly, foreign-sourced oil.  Representatives from auto, petroleum, food and environmental lobby groups sent a letter requesting that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hold a hearing upon returning from summer recess on the processes and testing that the EPA is currently conducting before making an expected decision as early as September on increasing the ethanol blend rate in the national fuel supply from E10 to E12 or E15. In response to a recent media inquiry, Matt Hartwig, RFA's spokesman, said it best.  "These groups know full well that E15 will work just fine in vehicle engines.  Yet, they are so wed to the status quo that they will do anything to keep American addicted to oil.  We can count the angels on the head of this pin all we want. "The science will always demonstrate the efficacy of E15, but Americans will be relegated to even more oil use.  It would be a more prudent use of time for automakers to research how to make engines that better utilize ethanol's superior fuel qualities and oil companies to study how to not foul the environment so we don't see a repeat of the BP debacle. "Ultimately, this is a matter for consideration by EPA under the authority Congress has already given it in the Clean Air Act.  Asking Congress to intervene demonstrates that these groups already know E15 is effective and are pulling out the last stops to prevent seeing ethanol gain more market share."