GoodFuels

Ethanol May Be Falsely Accused

The story made headlines around the country last week - Excess Ethanol Blamed in Police Car Breakdowns.

Baltimore city officials blamed an ”unusually high amount of ethanol in gasoline” when over 200 police cars experienced engine problems after fueling up at a city-run pump.

Bad publicity when the ethanol industry is asking for approval to allow higher blends of ethanol in gasoline, no doubt. Problem is - this may be a case of the wrong suspect being accused of the crime.

A Baltimore Sun blogger is now reporting that the gasoline supplier, IsoBunkers, conducted its own tests and “found the gas was 10 percent ethanol — just what it was supposed to be.” IsoBunkers officials noted that only police cars were affected by the breakdowns, not other city vehicles that used the same pump. City officials are now saying they will continue the investigation to determine exactly what did cause the problem.

Unfortunately, the IsoBunkers revelation today was relegated to the blog (not that there is anything wrong with blogs, mind you) - but it didn’t make front page news like the original story did last week. If it turns out they pinned the crime on the wrong suspect, the damage may already be done. The innocent will still be tainted.

The evidence was flawed from the start, however. City officials said only it was an “unusually high amount of ethanol” but did not quantify that. Sure, if there was 50 percent ethanol in the gasoline that could very likely cause problems in vehicles that are not flex-fuel. Maybe as little as 20-30 percent could even be a problem. And there is a possibility that a blender could have made an error and blended ethanol at a higher than approved rate. The city needed to do a more thorough investigation before “making an arrest” in this case. They tainted the reputation of both the supplier and the fuel by jumping the gun.

I certainly hope the media in Baltimore follows up on this story and not only gets to the bottom of this who-done-it mystery but reports it to the public as well.