The war of words between the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers and the Renewable Fuels Association hit a boiling point Thursday morning.
RFA President Bob Dinneen was responding to comments Wednesday from AFPM President Charles T. Drevna, who compared the ethanol blend E15 to the gasoline additive MTBE.
"AFPM and the oil companies are living in a fantasy parallel universe if they think they can revise history to tarnish E15 and the RFS," Dinneen said in a release. "AFPM's pernicious campaign against ethanol and the RFS, as reflected in this latest attempt to blame EPA for the oil company's investment in toxic MTBE ... is just the latest, sad, desperate example."
Drevna responded Wednesday to a New Hampshire verdict earlier that day in a case where ExxonMobil was found negligent for putting MTBE in gasoline without warning the state of its risks. The jury ordered ExxonMobil to pay $236 million for contaminating New Hampshire's groundwater after the additive leaked from tanks.
"The unfair outcome of the MTBE lawsuit should be a wake-up call for Congress that the long-ranging and detrimental impacts of the RFS ethanol mandate will fall squarely upon consumers, engine manufacturers and the oil industry," Drevna said. "EPA's unwillingness to defend its decisions is further evidence that the Renewable Fuel Standard should be repealed."
Dinneen responded by pointing out that MTBE did not undergo the same rigorous tests that E15 has passed in recent years, becoming the most widely used additive to increase a fuel's oxygen content.
"Oil companies losing the court case in New Hampshire screams a dire warning that oil companies should not be trusted with our energy future," Dinneen said. "Oil companies have a disturbing track record of putting their monopoly ahead of innovation and progress, and their profits ahead of consumer pocketbooks."
MTBE is still produced in the US but is almost exclusively exported to Europe and several countries in South America. US Gulf Coast MTBE was assessed Wednesday at $3.1245/gal FOB USG, the lowest since November 16. Fuel-grade ethanol was assessed Wednesday at $2.49/gal ITT Argo.
