June 8, 2016
UAI calls on CARB to recognize role of ethanol in reducing carbon
“In comments recently filed with the California Air Resources Board, the Urban Air Initiative made a compelling case for higher octane, lower carbon fuels like midlevel ethanol blends to help the state meet its carbon reduction goals.”
“UAI noted that even the University of California-Riverside, which has traditionally been a critic of ethanol cautioned in a 2015 report that, ‘increasing the ethanol fraction in gasoline could help to reduce climate and human health impacts attributed to particle emissions from Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) vehicles…As ethanol concentrations are increased in the U.S., the higher octane fuel could effectively decrease BC emissions from the high PM emitting GDI vehicles thus helping to minimize BC.'”
“The nano and ultra-fine particles tied to toxic aromatic emissions are increasingly linked to a range of respiratory and even neurological health issues. Studies by the U.S. Department of Energy and its laboratories have found high octane fuels using ethanol can provide immediate efficiency gains and GHG reductions as compared to electric vehicles and other longer range strategies.”
— Urban Air Initiative, Ethanol Producer Magazine