A Nevada businessman says a quirk in federal law is forced him to stop selling 15 percent ethanol-blended fuel at his gas station on June 1 for three months.
Charlie Good, the owner of Good & Quick Tire and Auto Service, is speaking out about it in the hopes that Iowans will urge lawmakers in Washington to change it.
“Everybody that has a 2001 or newer vehicle that’s been using this, all of the sudden sees that and goes, ‘Oh, I’m not supposed to use that now this time of the year.’ I can tell you right now, my sales have dropped by 50 percent,” Good said. “It’s just like clockwork, every year, it happens.”
Good says the 15 percent ethanol-blended fuel is better for cars and the environment.
However, he says in the summer, due to the heat, federal law says this fuel can’t be sold at the pump to most cars because the chemistry in the fuel makes it more volatile.
Good added that it’s complicated, but big oil companies refuse to change their fuel volatility to make 15 percent ethanol-blended fuel OK to use in the summertime.
He travels to Washington every year to advocate for the renewable fuel standard. He says getting lawmakers to allow 15 percent ethanol to be sold year-round will benefit the consumers because it’s cheaper.
“We’re Iowa, here. We’re all about corn, we’re all about renewable fuels,” Good said. “It’s better for the air, it’s better for the Iowa economy, it’s created thousands and thousands of jobs. And if they got the RFS to completely go away, you’d lose about 4,500 jobs in Iowa, just in a heartbeat.”
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