More on the potential risk to America’s car and truck fleet
posed by E15 – gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol that has
EPA approval: Just-released research indicates that more than 5
million existing cars and light trucks, which EPA says are OK
for E15 use, could develop engine problems as a result. Why this
discrepancy? The Coordinating Research Council (CRC), a non-
profit entity supported by the automotive and oil and petroleum
industries, tested the durability of engines using tests that
have been conducted for more than a decade to determine how well
engines would hold up with a new fuel. On the other hand, the
Department of Energy (DOE) and EPA tested the catalyst system
and then used the results of those tests to say the engine would
be fine. It’s a bit like taking a reading test to determine
whether your heart is healthy. A key finding in the CRC study: -
Of eight different tested engine types, one had a design that
was (in retrospect) inappropriate for the test cycle, two failed
on E20 (20 percent