N.H. Legislator Considers Banning Ethanol

Steve Taylor
N.H. Correspondent

NASHUA, N.H. — David Campbell wants to ban corn-based ethanol from being blended into gasoline sold in the state of New Hampshire.

“It makes no sense environmentally when making a gallon of ethanol has a bigger carbon footprint than a gallon of gasoline, and it makes no sense to allow it to drive up food costs and availability when millions of people around the globe are facing starvation,” Campbell, a member of the state legislature, says.

He has had a bill drafted for consideration at the upcoming legislative session to prohibit sale of gasoline containing ethanol, and he’s already been hearing from people who promise support, as well as from state bureaucrats who tell it can’t be done.

Among those offering support are owners of chainsaws, snowmobiles, outboard boat motors, weed whackers and other power equipment who have already seen their machines damaged by fuel containing ethanol.

They’re the leading edge of what the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OEPI), a Washington trade group, says is going to be a huge and angry mass of equipment owners should the Environmental Protection Agency go along with proposals to allow gasoline to be formulated at more than the current 10 percent level for ethanol content.

Campbell, an attorney and veteran lawmaker, says people in the state Department of Environmental Services have told him an ethanol ban in New Hampshire is an impossibility in light of ethanol mandates coming down from Washington, but he’s undeterred.

“They say ‘We’ll have no gas’ but I’m trying to point out how idiotic it is to be foisting ethanol on the states. If New Hampshire bans it we’ll be the first state to do it, but if 10, 20 or 30 states eventually come along I say it will stop the idiocy,” he says.

Equipment repair shops all over the Northeast report growing problems with engines caused by gasoline containing the current EPA-mandated 10 percent ethanol, or “E-10” gas. The engines, many of which are two-cycle, weren’t engineered to accommodate the differing characteristics of E-10 fuel, leading to an array of problems, including hard starting, erratic running, internal damage and eventual failure.

There’s lots more of that to come if EPA allows E-15, E-20 or higher ethanol blends to come to market, says Kris Kiser of OEPI.

“We’re now using less gasoline across the country, so the ethanol lobby is trying to force more ethanol onto the market. That gives rise to major concerns for safety, for higher ethanol concentrations can make small engines abruptly accelerate-think of an idling chainsaw suddenly revving up without warning. Dangerous,” Kiser says.

“Or a boat motor suddenly failing out on a water body. There are all kinds of safety concerns about what more ethanol is going to cause.”

OEPI and several other trade organizations have formed a coalition (Allsafe-fuel.org) to monitor testing that is presently underway at the U.S. Department of Energy on the impacts of higher concentrations of ethanol in gasoline.

But Kiser says the subject is going to be a major issue in the upcoming Congressional session, with lawmakers trying to sort out what direction federal policy should go.

Whatever is decided, Kiser sees huge costs down the road for consumers, especially if things move in the direction of more ethanol being blended into gasoline, which if it happens will mean the demise of most “legacy equipment”-outdoor equipment engines made before 2008. And that doesn’t take into account what many in the gasoline industry claim is happening right now: unscrupulous marketers are boosting ethanol content well beyond the present E-10 limit because they can make money doing it.

All the more reason for New Hampshire to give ethanol the heave-ho, says David Campbell, the state representative who is going to try.

“It’s just a matter of Yankee common sense we do it,” Campbell says.