“Tolerance is the last virtue of a dying society.”

– Aristotle

If you hadn’t noticed, all of the gasoline you pump into your car or truck now contains 10 percent corn-based ethanol. And, if Congress and the corn lobby has its way, the percentage of ethanol in our gasoline soon will be increased to 15 percent or more. What you may have noticed is that your gas mileage is going down and your vehicle is running rougher with less power.

Wait until you start burning this ethanolized gas in your outboard motors this spring!

According to the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI), ethanol is just plain bad news for marine engines. Here, according to OPEI and some other spokesmen from the small engine community, are some of the nettlesome outcomes of burning ethanol gasoline in your outboard motors:

1. Reduced shelf life of gas stored in your tank.

2. Ethanol will attract and absorb water and moisture.

3. Damage to pistons (engine seize ups) and other moving parts.

4. Reduced engine performance.

5. Ethanol acts as a solvent, dissolving plastic, rubber, fiberglass, and aluminum.

6. Ethanol is a drying agent. It will disintegrate parts in your outboards and other small engines.

7. Ethanol will dissolve resins that create sludge, clogging your carburetors and filters.

This winter in Islamorada, Fla., (Florida Keys), which is a big boating-fishing area, boat owners have been flocking to the one gas station in town that is selling non-ethanol gasoline. A mechanic at the Mercury dealer in Key Largo told me that the inside of rubber gas hoses on external gas tanks (with plastic liners) were being disintegrated by ethanol gasoline and raising havoc with outboards.

What’s the solution? Simple: Ban ethanol-enriched gasoline from Maine. According to Melissa Morrill, a spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Maine has no law requiring ethanol in gasoline. The ethanol gasoline is a Congressional mandate, and one pushed by the American corn growers whose crops are subsidized by you and me, the taxpayers. In New Hampshire, State Representative David Campbell is sponsoring legislation that would ban ethanol gasoline from the Granite State. In Maine, there is already a precedent. In 2007, the legislature banned the octane booster, MTBE, after learning that it was compromising our groundwater. Sportsmen in this state need to contact their state lawmakers and encourage some corrective action. Waldoboro State Senator Dave Trahan, who has proven to Maine’s sportsmen that he is one lawmaker who can be counted on, told me that he is willing to sponsor legislation to ban ethanol gasoline from Maine. State Senator Lisa Marrache of Kennebec has a bill pending that would, at the very least, mandate the availability of non-ethanol gas.

What’s most aggravating about this whole issue is the fact that, for all of this grief for the consumer, there really is no substantive environmental benefit or tradeoff. Ethanol gas does nothing for energy independence. The manufacture of ethanol creates its own carbon footprint before it ever gets to the gas tank. Corn should be used for food, not fuel. The ethanol experiment springs from corporate farming and corn politics, period. A surplus of taxpayer-subsidized corn is driving the ethanol scam. As the Wall Street Journal opined in a recent editorial, “Ethanol is one of the most shameless energy rackets going.” All of us, sportsmen and non-sportsmen alike, have through our complacency allowed the U.S. Congress and Big Corn to jam ethanol gasoline down our throats.

Across this country, Americans, who have been asleep at the switch for too long, are finally awakening. Step one in taking back the country should start right here in Maine, with a state ban on ethanol gasoline.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WQVM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].