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Ethanol: How much is too much for motorcycles
Written by Digits
The battle of just how much ethanol ends up in your motorcycle tank took another turn as an advocacy group filed a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its efforts to increase additive to as much as fifteen percent.
Auto, marine, motorcycle, outdoor power equipment, personal watercraft and snowmobile groups filed a petition EPA to ensure the continued sale and availability of gasoline blends of no greater than 10 percent ethanol (E10) for the 400 million engine products used by tens of millions of people every day in the U.S.
Apparently giving up the fight to stop the increase to fifteen percent all together, the advocacy groups note many products were not designed, built or warranted to run on any fuel containing more than ten percent ethanol. The groups are concerned that retailers are not prepared to offer both E10 and E15 at their stations, and given the choice, may opt to offer E15 only.
“Misfueling is our prime concern, and we foresee that consumers will be forced to fuel with E15 unless EPA requires stations to carry both legacy (E10) and new E15 fuels,” said Kris Kiser, speaking on behalf of the organizations. “Many stations may not be equipped to accommodate an additional fuel, leading them to choose between E15 and E10 fuels – and E15 will likely win out since it may be more profitable for them to carry. This means consumers might have no choice but to fuel with E15, and there will be little to prevent them from misfueling when they come in with a lawnmower, chainsaw, motorcycle, snowmobile, boat or older car.”
The organizations point out that EPA’s prior experience with fuel transitions and misfueling demonstrates that labeling alone is insufficient to prevent misfueling. In 1974, as EPA led the transition to unleaded fuels, the Agency reported a misfueling rate of 15 percent over ten years after the introduction of unleaded gasoline.
The petition for rulemaking, filed with the U.S. EPA, says that with a partial waiver ruling, EPA cannot assure E10 fuel will be available for legacy fleet, and therefore, the petitioners request that EPA, consistent with prior precedent, ensure continued consumer choice by requiring the continued sale of gasoline blends of no greater than E10 fuel.
The petition says that EPA must assure continued availability of E10 for three specific reasons.
There is a strong potential that the reduced volume of E10 fuel required in the marketplace might result in the elimination of supply, further eroding the availability of a fuel needed for millions of off-road, small engine equipment,
EPA must create legal obligations that ensure that the conditions on which the waivers were based can be fulfilled, and
EPA has enough evidence that emission control devices would be significantly “impaired” by E15 to support a requirement for E10.
The fight over increasing ethanol in gasoline is one all too familiar to the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) who has been at odds with EPA’s move to allow a higher volume.
“The AMA supports the use of cleaner-burning fuels, but we are concerned that gasoline containing more than 10 percent ethanol could result in premature engine damage or failure while a motorcycle is being ridden,” Imre Szauter, AMA government affairs manager said last year, “We’re also concerned about any degradation in performance, fuel economy and rideability that may result from the long-term use of blended fuels with greater than 10 percent ethanol.”
The EPA, in allowing more ethanol in gas, specifically said that its decision covers model year 2007 and newer cars and light trucks, and no other vehicles at this time, including motorcycles.
“Motorcycle manufacturers only certify their machines to run on gasoline or a blend with up to 10 percent ethanol, which is known as E10,” Szauter said. “So using the 15 percent blend in a motorcycle could void the bike’s warranty.”
Growth Energy, an ethanol lobbying group, asked the EPA in March 2009 to allow gasoline to contain up to 15 percent ethanol. It’s part of an effort to meet a congressional mandate to increase to 36 billion gallons the amount of renewable fuel available in the United States by 2022. Ethanol, made from corn and other crops, is considered a renewable fuel.
For more than three years the AMA has been on the record opposing increases in the ethanol level allowed in gasoline until studies show that an increase won’t damage motorcycle or all-terrain vehicle (ATV) engines, and won’t make motorcycles emit more nitrogen oxides than are allowed by the EPA.
“The message we want to deliver today is that once E15 gas is offered for sale, there are a variety of reasons not to put it in your motorcycle or ATV gas tank,” Szauter said. “In fact, the EPA even says you aren’t allowed to put E15 in your bike.”
The EPA said a decision on the use of E15 in model year 2001 to 2006 vehicles will be made after new test results are received. The EPA is also proposing E15 pump labeling requirements so that consumers don’t mistakenly put E15 in the wrong vehicles.
Bob Greco, spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, told The Wall Street Journal that by approving E15 without full testing, the EPA is putting “politics before science.”
“You’re going to have fuels in the marketplace that could damage engines and void warranties,” Greco told the newspaper.
