The day before Thanksgiving, the Environmental Protection Agency – which President-elect Trump has threatened to ban – announced that it intended to increase the amount of ethanol in the nation’s fuel supply next year. Within about an hour, the American Motorcyclist Association announced that it was objecting to the increase. The timing of the EPA’s announcement means you are probably just hearing about this now.

Ethanol is the same alcohol in whisky. Most of it is distilled from corn. The ethanol you drink is cut with water. The ethanol the EPA wants to use as fuel is called anhydrous alcohol which means it has no water in it when it leaves the distillery.

This year. 2016, the EPA mandated the release of 18.11 billion gallons of ethanol, or moonshine, into the American fuel supply. Last May the government announced that it wanted to add 18.8 billion gallons of moonshine to American gasoline. The AMA objected to that. This week the EPA announced it intended to add 19.28 billion gallons of biofuel, or corn liquor, to the gasoline supply.

Big Money In Biofuel

The EPA’s decision is a valentine to the new and growing biofuel industry. The government’s summary of its very, very long and virtually undecipherable proposal explains:

“In this action, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to update both its renewable fuels and other fuels regulations to reflect changes in the marketplace and to promote the growing use of both ethanol fuels (conventional and advanced) and non-ethanol advanced and cellulosic biofuels. The EPA is proposing to make several changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program regulations that would align them with recent developments in the marketplace to increase production of cellulosic and other advanced biofuels. There are several companies that have developed renewable fuel production technologies that produce a “biointermediate” at one facility that is then processed into renewable fuel at another facility, and we are proposing regulatory changes to allow fuels produced through such methods to qualify under existing approved renewable fuel production pathways. “

If you can understand that paragraph, you might want to read the EPA’s entire statement and comment on the proposed increase here.

Bad Gas

With the possible exception of the Iron Order patch holder in the video below – speaking on behalf of the Ethanol Renewable Fuels Association, “the leading trade association for America’s ethanol industry, working to advance development, production and use of ethanol as a beneficial renewable fuel” – most motorcycling enthusiasts object to an increase of ethanol in the gasoline supply.

Ethanol stores less energy than gasoline, so adding it to gas leans out the fuel air mixture. Harley-Davidson objects to gas blends that contain even 10 percent ethanol. “You may find that some ethanol gasoline blends affect the starting, drivability, or fuel efficiency of your motorcycle. If you experience one or more of these problems, it is recommended you operate your motorcycle on straight unleaded gasoline.” The problem is, that the more ethanol enters to national fuel supply the more difficult “straight unleaded gasoline” becomes to find. Ethanol corrodes metal, plastic and rubber parts and absorbs water from the atmosphere. Gasoline contaminated with water causes numerous engine problems.

In its Wednesday statement, AMA vice president Wayne Allard said, “Increasing the amount of ethanol in our fuel supply is going to result in higher-ethanol blends, such as E15, at more pumps and stations. The widespread availability of E15 and higher-ethanol fuels increases the risk that owners will inadvertently misfuel their motorcycles.”

The AMA also thinks that “By increasing the amount of ethanol in America’s gasoline, the EPA is further straining the fuel marketplace by exceeding the blend wall by hundreds of millions of gallons. The blend wall is the point at which no more ethanol can be blended without forcing consumers to use higher blends, such as E15, E30 and E85. The AMA also is concerned that the increased reliance on corn-based ethanol could further reduce the amount of E0 fuel available. Since the distribution network for E15 and E85 is limited, fuel producers may be forced to reduce E0 output to stay within the RVO rule, leaving owners of older and vintage motorcycles without a reliable fuel supply.”