The ethanol industry has told us for years that using ethanol is good for the environment because it cuts down on gasoline usage while doing nothing to harm small engines. The truth is quite different from the claims. by Walt Thiessen
(libertarian)
Monday, November 8, 2010
Ever wonder why you have so much trouble starting your lawn mower, particularly if it doesn't have a choke? You're not alone.
The recent announcement by the EPA that it is increasing the allowable amount of ethanol in gasoline is bad news for anyone who operates a lawn mower, snow blower, string trimmer, boat motor, jet ski, chain saw, leaf blower, electricity backup generator, or any of the other small, gasoline engines available today.
I shot a 9-minute video yesterday which illustrates the real facts and placed it on YouTube. It features a small engine mechanic doing a show-and-tell presentation on what ethanol mixed into gasoline does to small engines. You'll be dismayed by what he has to show you. Take a look:
As you can see in the video, even 10% ethanol is systematically destroying our small engines. As Ken Francis, the small engine mechanic featured in the short video clearly demonstrates, ethanol ruins hoses, gums up diaphrams in carburetors, eats away at hoses, puts large amounts of water into gas tanks, and forces owners to start up their machines during the winter at least once every three weeks or thereabouts, just to insure that they'll start up without problems the following spring.
All the damage done by ethanol is great for Ken's small engine repair business, but lousy for the rest of us.
Particularly alarming was his report that some gasoline service stations have been caught with gasoline containing levels of ethanol up to 37% of the total product. When you see the evidence of the damage done that Ken shows you, it makes you wonder just when the EPA and Congress are going to wake up to the tremendous amounts of damage they have wrought on unsuspecting Americans everywhere.
Now, with the EPA allowing an increase to 15% ethanol in gasoline, there's no doubt whose side they're on: the Republican-backed corporate farming interests in Iowa and throughout the Midwest wherever corn is grown in huge quantities for turning into ethanol.
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in this article are those of Walt Thiessen only and
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Posted By: David S
Date: November 8, 2010 09:05:31 PM
HMMM I use stabilizer in the gas for all my small engines and I've been starting all of them every other month. Maybe I'll have to do it once a month now.
