Bio-Fuel Boondoggle Hits Europe, Kills Cars

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

EU car owners will get a new kind of gasoline – whether they want it, or not. Most don’t want it. They get it anyway. While US-automakers sue to stop ethanol blends, an edict handed down from Brussels demands that Super has to contain 10 percent of ethanol. An alliance from Germany’s ADAC autoclub to Greenpeace says the new gasoline is a work of the devil, it is liable to ruin cars, and the environment.

The ADAC autoclub says that there are three million cars on Germany’s roads for which the new mix means certain death. “One fill-up is enough to do lasting damage to the engine,” said an ADAC spokesperson to Der Westen.

Environmentalists are also against it: “To fulfill the new quota, you need cultivated area the size of Belgium,” said Dietmar Oelliger of the Naturschutzbund Deutschland. “Converting forests and meadows into farmland creates significantly more CO2 than what will be saved later.”

Greenpeace calculated that the new edict will lead to 56 million tons of greenhouse gases. And they suspect that rain-forests will be uprooted to make room for the production of Brussels-mandated bio-fuel.

The Rhein-Zeitung is worried about something else: Money. The new “E10” fuel will probably cost more, and the car will use more, because the new fuel has a lower energy density. Also, the fuel competes with other farm products. Says the Rhein-Zeitung: “Potato prices are going up, and even beer is supposed to get more expensive.”

This is where Germans usually draw the line.

Does everybody hate the stuff? No, the Verband der Deutschen Biokraftstoffindustrie loves it.

It’s the association of the German bio-fuel industry.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Zeus01 Zeus01 on Dec 29, 2010

    Here's a particularly terrible thought: Even though it is now common knowledge (even among bureaucrats) that ethanol-blend fuels reduce fuel economy and power, cost more to produce, pollute more during production and do the square root of sweet bleep-all to reduce pollution from auto emissions, we will still be stuck with it. All levels of government are raking in gobs more in taxes thanks to the increased fuel consumed thanks to E-10's lack of efficiency--- and they don't want this to change. I hope I'm wrong, but...

  • Robert Schwartz Robert Schwartz on Dec 29, 2010

    I see a win win. The US sells its ethanol to Germany, now they have ethanol, we have foreign exchange and ethanol free gasoline.

  • Bryce Bryce on Jun 18, 2011

    Converting food into car fuel is shortsighted stupidity Subsidisng the growing of corn to make fuel has to be the stupidest subsidy ever.

  • 2ronnies1cup 2ronnies1cup on Jun 18, 2011

    I find it surprising to see so many Americans, blessed with the lowest gasoline price in the developed world, bellyaching about single-figure losses in fuel economy using E-blend fuels. I guess you must all have much lower incomes than the rest of the world has been led to believe.

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