Knowledge of Ethanol Benefits Growing in Australia +VIDEO

Ethanol-gasoline blends save consumers money

By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
THE AUTO CHANNEL

Marc J. Rauch

About a year and a half ago, I had the great please to visit Australia to speak at the National Biofuels Association Conference in Brisbane. Unfortunately, I was only there for a few days, and I only spent time in the Brisbane area. But if all of Australia is as beautiful and friendly as Brisbane (and I have no reason to think otherwise), then is truly is the "Land of Oz," a wondrous place.... a lot like America, by the way.

What did surprise me, given the Australian spirit of adventure and independence, not to mention their love of the outdoors, was their reluctance to embrace alternative fuels more vigorously. There was a definite reticence about accepting ethanol engine fuels, despite the fact that ethanol fuels played such a big part in British motoring for so many years - I'll explain more and connect the dots in a few moments.

In any event, as I already said, Australia lags behind the U.S. and other countries in their acceptance of ethanol-gasoline blends, such as Brazil that uses the highest mandated ethanol-gasoline blend levels in the world: E27 (about 27% ethanol, 63% gasoline).

This week, an exciting news story broke in Australia - a television news story - from Adelaide's Channel 7, that city's largest news source. The story follows an independent test conducted by the TV station and John Cadogan, a well-known Australian auto expert. The purpose of the test was to determine which fuel offers the best economy, E10 or ethanol-free gasoline.

As The Auto Channel and many other objective automotive entities have pointed out and demonstrated over the years, E10 clearly is the more economical choice. However, just as we Americans largely ignore the incredible economic and safety benefits that Brazil has discovered by using higher ethanol-gasoline blend levels, the Australians have kept the American ethanol success with E10 at arms length. Clearly many people prefer to believe information only when it comes from their own "people." This, then, is why the Adelaide Channel 7 test is so important; it's an Australian story by and for Australians, produced in Australia. Here it is:

Once again, when a comparison is made by independent people away from the lies, pressure, and wallet of the petroleum oil industry; the better choice is to use ethanol (or an ethanol-gasoline blend).

The reason for my comment in paragraph 2, above, about the surprise that Australians didn't have a higher regard for ethanol blends is because of the wide use of ethanol-gasoline blends in Britain for more than 50 years (1920's to 1970's). As I set forth in my December 2017 editorial "The Hypocrisy of Big Oil," the oil industry's largest oil marketers sold and promoted ethanol-gasoline blends in Britain as being better, safer, more economical, and cleaner than ethanol-free gasoline. This extensive marketing must have meant that hundreds of thousands, or millions of vehicles in Britain used ethanol-gasoline blends (without all the modern day claims of problems). And given the historical, political, and social ties between Australia and Britain, many vehicles that used ethanol must have found their way to Australia. Consequently, without contemporary Australians realizing it, their fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers owned vehicles that reliably ran on ethanol (ethanol-gasoline blends).

Needless to say, it will take more than one TV news story in Australia to turn Australia into the "Land of OZ & Ethanol." But when you consider how much ethanol could be produced in that great big wide open country, and how much in need the rest of the region is for safe, clean, economical engine fuels, ethanol could become Australia's most important export.

Good on ya, Australia!