While not directly related, there is conclusive empirical evidence that ethanol has expensive and destructive effects on boat fuel tanks made of fiberglass (not uncommon), carburetors, lines, and consequently engines. The marine industry has been lobbying against additional ethanol after seeing a number of boats damaged to the point it wasn't cost-effective to repair. The aircraft industry has similar concerns as some light planes have similar issues with tanks, lines, etc. At least with a boat it just stops running. With a plane it falls from the sky. Unfortunately the ethanol agri-conglomerates such as Archer Daniels-Midland have a HUGE influence in Congress. And they stand to benefit most...

Hello Jay,

Clarification on your "Fuel with mostly ethanol seems to sell for about 20 cents a gallon less at retail than regular gas." statement.

In actuality E85 on a National Average basis is selling for 46 cents less per gallon. (e85prices.com) Which more than makes up for the average lose in mpg on most FFVs.

despite how anyone feels about ethanol the reality is that ethanol now displaces roughly 95 of the Gasoline we would otherwise need.

That direct competition is helping to keep all fuel costs lower.

Back to the core of your article , ethanol in no way shape or form up to around 30% would causes any issues at all in the Police Vehicles.In Fact most of Baltimores Police fleet (non FFVs) could run E50-E60 without any issues at all.

I currently run a 1986 Nissan Pickup on E85 .. and a 2003 Ford Thunderbird on E60 and have run 4 other vehicles on E40-E85 .

The NON FFVs and the FFVs all have the same parts (.... sometimes the FFV has larger injectors but usually the only difference is the fuel mapping( basic software coding for the vehicles computer)

That said YES their is incentives for Station owners to try and increase their profits by buying cheaper ethanol and replacing it with expensive gasoline . There should be steep fines for anyone giving the customer a different fuel then they have selected.

As far as Police Car damage, utter nonsense .. you know what happened?

The Check Engine Lights came on" essentially telling them them were running lean. It simply wasn't a big deal.

How do we know this..

They "repaired" 70 vehicles in 24 hours 1 lol

There is nothing to repair..they shut off the the check engine light and added more gasoline

Interesting food for thought, Dan.

I'm going to add my two cents' worth. My 11-year-old car never had fuel-related engine problems until moving to Baltimore in 2005. In every single case, the repairmen stated that it is incredibly difficult to find gas in this area that actually--how shall I phrase this--lives up to its advertising, if you will. I need a new car anyway, and am considering a switch to a VW diesel, particularly if the hype surrounding big efficiency increases turns out to be true over the coming years.

This was a fueling error caused by humans- Blaming it on ethanol is a weak journalistic hack. No controversy- no news I guess.

Behind this ethanol expansion campaign is Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)- the same agribusiness giant which is featured for its 'serial price-fixing' in the movie "The Informant" starring Matt Damon.
This company is also the largest producer of high fructose corn syrup - a food ingredient which doctors and nutritionists say is a primary factor in the nation's obesity and diabetes crisis.

Calling the ethanol policy a taxpayer draining program is incorrectly judgemental. In 2007 the industry received about 3.5 billion in incentives primarily paid to the blenders. Farm subsidies were reduced by about 8 billion because there was actually a market for the grains that were produced. Federal income taxes paid by the industry totaled over 8 billion. It is estimated that th eAmerican consumers saved 15% on their gasoline bill because ethanol represented about 8% of the national supply. That resulted in a 40 billion dollar savings to taxpayers. That 305 billion dollares seems like a pretty good investment How many other federal programs do we have that generate that kind of return to our taxpayers? A few corrupt suppliers in the gasoline distribution change that create negative publicity for their competition shouldn't tarnish the industry.

We all need to worry about what ethanol is doing to the Chesapeake Bay!!! All the extra run-off from cornfields ends up right in the Bay----increasing the "dead zone". The energy bill passed by the House blocks EPA from considering "indirect" greenhouse gas admissions ---that is "lifecycle analysis" of the whole ethanol process. That has to be removed before the Senate passes it.

Ethanol is another scam.We get less MPG so we end up using more gasoline to make up for the loss of mileage.

Hey Jay,

If it turns out from the fuel tests that there is too much water in the fuel would you report how bad water is?

You can have your mechanic convert your car to run on pure ethanol after the Iranians nuke the Straights of Hormuz; on the otherhand, you could walk to work and use cornflakes for your energy source.

It was Diesel Fuel ..

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-fuel0922,0,7240327.story

Come on Jay ..Lets hear you Slam Diesel Fuel now..because Clearly it was the Fuel and not the bone heads putting the wrong fuel in the tank.