House Blocks E15

The U.S House of Representatives voted to block the EPA's waiver to allow America's gas pumps to carry E15, a 15-percent ethanol/gasoline mixture. The votes crossed party lines with 286 representatives voting against 135 to stop the EPA's granting of a wavier to allow gas stations to distribute E15.

This may be seen as good news to landscape contractors, as there has been much discussion about how E15 can negatively effect eternal combustion landscape maintenance equipment.

The reason for banning the wavier for E15 stems from a lack of ''testing'' the effects of E15 on people, the environment, and vehicles. Politicians and automakers alike are concerned that people driving vehicles that aren't ''approved'' for E15 will unwittingly put this fuel in their car, damaging their engine, so on and so forth. Automakers, environmentalists, bakers, boat builders, and oil lobbyists alike have aligned to block the EPA from giving gas stations a waiver to sell E15 at their gas stations.