New data presented Wednesday by the Auto Alliance and Global Automakers shows results from a two-year study on engine durability that indicate E-15 can ruin an engine. The two groups call on a government study resulting in the approval of the use of a blend of 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline premature because testing was not finished. Groups representing small-engine manufacturers and power-equipment makers have said alcohol-blend fuels are bad for the engines in boats, chain saws, lawn mowers, generators and the like.

The Department of Energy and the Renewable Fuels Association say the report is fundamentally flawed. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Transportation says – we believe the choice of test engines, test cycle, limited fuel selection, and failure criteria of the CRC program resulted in unreliable and incomplete data, which severely limits the utility of the study.

Speaking to the New York Times, a Department of Energy spokesman “said that his agency had tested 86 vehicles on test tracks and dynamometers for a total of more than six million miles. ‘A subset of those engines tested in the D.O.E. study were torn down and inspected with no discernible difference in engine wear between test fuels,’ he said.”

Bob Dinneen President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, says – accepting the status quo in a fuel market monopolized by petroleum as the best this nation can do is unacceptable. Dinneen adds, funding research using questionable testing protocols and illegal fuels make the test – meaningless and only serve to further muddy the waters and shun the overwhelming desire of 75 percent of Americans for greater choice at the pump.

Source: Renewable Fuels Association