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EPA never did ethanol studies required by law

The law is such an inconvenient thing: Despite a legal mandate from Congress to conduct studies on the use of ethanol in vehicles the EPA has admitted that it simply ignored the law and never did any.

The Obama administration has failed to study as legally required the impact of requiring ethanol in gasoline and ensuring that new regulations intended to address one problem do not actually make other problems worse, the Environmental Protection Agency inspector general said Thursday. The conclusion in the new audit confirmed findings of an Associated Press investigation in November 2013. The AP said the administration never conducted studies to determine whether air and water quality benefits from adding corn-based ethanol to gasoline. Such reports to Congress were required every three years under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

Instead, they have been pushing to increase the amount of ethanol used in gasoline, even though they have no idea whether this helps or hurts the environment, and have been told by practically every automotive industry expert that increased ethanol will damage car engines.

But then, who cares what the law says? Who cares what other experts say? The EPA is made up of righteous perfect liberal individuals who simply know better. How dare Congress, or anyone for that matter, tell them what to do!

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

9 comments

  • BSJ

    Ethanol is in gasoline to subsidize corn farmers.

  • PeterF

    Empirical anecdotal evidence:
    When I built the engine in my ’57 chevy, I set it up for high altitude fuel efficiency to be my daily driver. If I drove carefully, I could get as much as 24 MPG. (love that overdrive!) Now that I am forced to use gasoline with ethanol in it, My performance has gone into the crapper and no matter what I do I can only get 18 MPG

  • Joe

    Another one of those corn husker kickbacks! The EPA niether cares weather ethanol hurts or helps, they don’t care about intent or outcome, all they care about is amassing and wielding a great amount of power. The EPA is one the most corrupt institutions in our government.

  • Mitch S.

    Al Gore admitted ethanol doesn’t help the environment and he pushed it for political reasons:
    (BTW lets remember that Republicans didn’t fight to roll back the mandates even after Gore’s admission):

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethanol-gore-idUSTRE6AL3CN20101122

  • Chops

    Cars in Brazil can run on 100% ethanol perfectly well. That we can’t in the US is a choice the manufacturers and government have made. With the proper (easy and cheap) materials and software there is simply no damage to an automobile engine by ethanol.

    Why favor oil and the Saudis over American farmers? Do you want those who want to destroy us to get more money?

  • Localfluff

    Bio fuel is the by far most environmentally destructive energy source. Burning down the forests and slaughtering all wild animals. Replacing it with the agrochemical monotonic plantations of our synthetic crops which cannot survive without constant fertilization and pesticides. If human kind suddenly ceased to exist, wheat would also be extinct in just 100 years, geneticists have calculated. It cannot survive the competition against natural grass without our constant mechanical and chemical help. This is not natural, nor environmentally friendly. Farming is the most environmentally destructive of all industries. Thank God that our CO2 emissions from burning dead mineral fossil fuel from the underground helps increase the harvests so efficiently that the farmland acres of the world are decreasing while producing more food to more people!

    And gasoline mixed with ethanol is not storable. It decomposes and will destroy your engine if used after some years in storage.

  • wayne

    “I Want To Be A Crony”
    https://youtu.be/2aO9tA5DWJM

  • Chops-
    “Cars in Brazil can run on 100% ethanol perfectly well. ” yeah, right…
    just so long as you don’t expect power or performance…
    “With the proper (easy and cheap) materials and software there is simply no damage to an automobile engine by ethanol.”
    Mad Max would be overjoyed to know this beyond thunder dome…
    “Why favor oil and the Saudis over American farmers?”
    The US could be energy independent within a year if the current administration wasn’t working to the benefit of certain donors to maintain the status quo…
    (the railroad tankers involved in the MANY recent disasters? They are owned by Warren Buffet. They have been carrying the “tar sands oil” from Canada. We are repeating the history of the early 20th century when pipelines and rail tankers competed for the profitable trade of shipping oil. This time, the (more expensive) railroad is winning. (To the detriment of ALL US citizens) for the benefit of the railroad stock holders and their government creatures.

  • pzatchok

    Chops

    Even if we doubled the efficiency of solar cells we wouldn’t have enough acreage to provide all the energy the US needs.
    Its the same with ethanol. We do not have enough acreage to supply all the power needs of the US.

    Using Brazil as an example is wrong, just wrong. The nation is starving because they are ordered to produce sugar beets to turn into ethanol instead of growing food.
    They are also destroying the rain forest do to this.
    All so that the government can sell ALL of its oil overseas for a profit. the tax base is so low that this is the only way Brazil can get enough money to even function in a general sense.
    By the way they use most of the oil money to subsidize everything the people cannot afford, like food.

    The increased use of ethanol in the US is already driving the cost of corn based products up. I remember a few years ago the Mexican protests that happened because US corn prices were going up to fast and to high.

    Add in the increased use of petroleum based insecticides and fertilizers.

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