The bright orange warning label that the government is proposing for E15 pumps has angered some in the ethanol industry.
Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, says the label is going to scare motorists from putting the fuel even in cars where it's permitted.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced two weeks ago that it was allowing the use of gasoline containing up to 15 percent ethanol in 2007 and newer cars and trucks. At the same time, the EPA proposed regulations, including the warning label, to ensure that the fuel isn't put in other vehicles.
Shaw questions the label's truthfulness because of the sentence that says the "fuel might damage other vehicles." The government is still studying the impact on models from 2001 to 2006 and isn't doing any research on vehicles older than 2001, so there's no basis to say that E15 might damage cars older than 2007 models, Shaw said. "That is a flat-out unsupportable statement that is very prejudicial," he said.
The ethanol content of gas used in conventional cars and trucks has been restricted to 10 percent until now.
