Alaskans are well informed on most military issues and national security. However, there is one national policy that we tend to overlook and that is the addition of ethanol to gasoline.
Vets4Energy, a nationwide group of volunteer veterans, have identified this as a national energy policy that adversely affects national security.
Congress, by enacting the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) law, mandated the addition of ethanol in gasoline in the belief that it would improve air quality. Ethanol is refined from corn, the same crop that feeds livestock and millions of people. Roughly 40% of the corn crop of the United States is diverted to making ethanol.
The U.S. military uses more than 100 million barrels of oil per year. Much of that fuel requires the addition of ethanol. Current blending regulations require 10% ethanol in each gallon of gasoline, commonly referred to as E-10. That amount of ethanol has worked satisfactorily in most geographical regions, but it does not work well in arctic regions like Alaska.
The original RFS law specifies the quantities of ethanol that must be produced each year. Initially, that required quantity, when blended with the volume of gasoline produced, resulted in the desired 10% blend. Since then, automobile technology has improved and the demand for gasoline has actually decreased.
Now more ethanol is produced than can be used and maintain the E-10 blend. The U.S. has hit the E-10 “blend wall”, the point at which refiners no longer can meet ethanol-blending mandates without putting more than 10% into each gallon of gasoline.
Unless something changes, refiners will have only two options: produce E-15 (15% ethanol) or produce flexfuel – a blend of between 51% and 83% ethanol that can be used only in flexfuel automobiles, which make up about 5% of the U.S. vehicle fleet today. And there is a problem with the E-85 option, only 5,000 of the 700,000 gasoline pumps nationwide are certified for E-15. Gas station owners, typically family owned small businesses, would have to invest millions to make a change. Currently less than 2% of gas stations can dispense E-15.
Increasing the amount of ethanol in gasoline can be harmful for engines, costly for the U.S. economy and, equally troubling, will take more corn out of the food chain. None of these outcomes are desirable. A strong economy is essential for national security.
In November 2013, the Federal Environmental Agency (EPA) temporarily suspended the requirement for increasing ethanol production. But, Congressional action is required to change the RFS law and eliminate the requirement for producing more ethanol, regardless of the amount of gasoline.
A recent NERA study found some alarming economic consequences of the RFS law. The study found that these standards could cause severe economic harm by the year 2015, decreasing U.S. GDP by $770 billion and worker take-home pay by $580 billion. The RFS could also result in a 30% increase in the cost of making gasoline and a 300% increase in the cost of making diesel fuel by 2015.
Now is the time to press Congress to change this onerous RFS law and create one based on sound economic reason.
Mayor George Wuerch is the Alaska Chair of Vets4Energy
George Wuerch is the Alaska Chair of Vets4Energy, an advocacy group on energy issues. He is a retired U.S. Marine Corps. officer who served in Vietnam, and also was elected to and served on the Anchorage Assembly and was Mayor of Anchorage from 2000-2003. For more information go to www.vets4energy.com
