A recent study revealed that New England’s use of ethanol gas is creating a major transfer of wealth to the corn-growing Midwest. The report showed that New England drivers during the past decade spent $5.6 billion needlessly in additional fuel costs due to ethanol-based gas.
Additionally, it is doing nothing to help the environment, and it’s costing us more for food, and we get a third less gas mileage to boot.
Ethanol gas, which is gasoline spiked with 10 percent corn, is tough on chain saws, outboard motors, lawn mowers, weed whackers and other small engines. This is not a matter of opinion; it is a matter of fact. Ask any small engine technician. Ethanol gas will clog up a carburetors, among other things.
Truth is, we have been burning corn as a way to accommodate an agricultural surplus and please the Green Movement.
To make matters worse, ethanol makers (the corn lobby) are pushing the EPA to increase the percentage of ethanol in American gasoline. Already, in some 16 states, E15 gasoline (15 percent ethanol) is being sold at the pumps. Incredibly, the EPA allows it.
Did you know that the higher the level of ethanol in your fuel, the more likely you are to destroy your engine? When levels go above 10 percent ethanol, fuel burns hotter and often reduces engine life. But adding more is exactly what ethanol makers are trying to push past the EPA.
This would be a good time for New Englanders to speak out. By Nov. 30, 2015, the EPA must decide the future of the controversial corn-based fuel. Vermont Rep. Peter Welch hit the nail: “We’ve just got to acknowledge that the corn-based mandate is a well-intended flop.”
There is a way to bring a halt to this nonsense.
Contact your congressional representative. Based on the politics of our Washington delegation, you might have the best luck contacting Senator Susan Collins or U.S. Representative Bruce Poliquin.
The author 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-FM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is vpaulr@tds.net . He has two books “A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook” and his latest, “Backtrack.” Online information is available at www.maineoutdoorpublications.com.
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