In football, when things are not going well, coaches often are heard to say “It’s our job to coach ‘em up,” meaning we need to get them smarter.

In our world of ethanol, that certainly is the case as we need to get people smarter and “coach up” the public, media and policymakers as to the real story about our product. Perhaps nothing is more important in this regard than the role ethanol can play in improving air quality and protecting public health, which is a core message of the Urban Air Initiative.

We know that gasoline is a toxic soup of pollutants and its harmful impacts are masked by the U.S. EPA’s outdated models and error-filled testing procedures. We also know that replacing the most harmful components of gasoline with ethanol can protect public health while providing superior engine performance.

But we can’t score a touchdown, if they won't let us on the field. Well, that is exactly what we face in regard to the blend wall and the policy roadblocks EPA has put in our way to keep higher ethanol blends out of the market. For ethanol to achieve its highest potential of being a source of clean octane, we need not only to get on the field via the fuel pool, but we need the cars and engines to be allowed to use these higher blends. 

Step one in this process is to dispel the myths and correct the misinformation that surrounds ethanol. On our website FixOurFuel.com, Urban Air lays out the health problems connected to gasoline and explains how these issues can be reduced greatly by improving the quality of gasoline with ethanol. We are addressing many questions regarding engine performance at our other website, FuelingTheTruth.com. Both of these sites, indeed, will coach ‘em up—Fix Our Fuel in terms of improving fuel quality and Fueling the Truth with engine and performance questions and answers as well as educational videos.

If the public, fueled by misinformation, believes that ethanol presents a problem for everything from their beloved automobile to their lawn mower, we will continue to struggle to gain market share. Correcting information and setting the record straight through these types of accurate websites will help break down the blend wall.

But we are not going to truly see ethanol reach its full potential on volumes powering only lawn equipment or small engines. The Holy Grail is the 140 billion gallon-per-year motor fuel market and using higher blends in conventional vehicles. Glacial Lakes Energy, with support from ICM and others, is promoting an innovative program, the E30 Challenge. Residents in Watertown, South Dakota, are running conventional automobiles, not flex fuel, on 30 percent ethanol blends to dispel the myth that we need specialized vehicles to run this clean, high-performing fuel.

The emissions and performance data being collected will allow us to take the first steps in getting automakers and the EPA to acknowledge that a 10 percent or even 15 percent limit in conventional automobiles is a myth. We can achieve air quality benefits and meet ever-increasing fuel economy requirements by taking advantage of ethanol’s low carbon and high octane qualities. 

UAI is participating in a panel of experts at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in late June that confirms everything we know to be true. We have a public health threat on our hands. The good news is that a former General Motors engineering executive sings the praises of E30 as a means of meeting automaker criteria for future fuels and lowering emissions.

We will continue to “coach ‘em up.” If information is power, then we have the high ground, and it is incumbent on us to spread the word about the dangers and health risks of emissions from today's petroleum-based gasoline. Whether it’s the alarming links to asthma and respiratory disease, or the even more alarming linkage to low birth weight and neurological ailments, the data is there. And we will continue to “coach ‘em up” on mid-level blends of ethanol, which is a practical, feasible solution that we can begin to use immediately without damage to engines or a sacrifice in power or performance.

So, all I can say is “Put Me In Coach.”
 

Author: David VanderGriend
CEO, ICM Inc., President, Urban Air Initiative
DaveV@icminc.com
316-796-0900