Oil Spills and Car-Stopping Contaminated Gasoline - Open Ethanol Letter Takes on API Ads

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Apr 02, 2014, 04:59 ET

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today's editions of the New York Times and Politico have published a good-humored, but factual takedown of Big Oil's false, hypocritical attacks against clean, renewable ethanol.

The full page ad, which is published in Politico and all DC editions of the New York Times, is an open letter to Jack Gerard, President of the American Petroleum Institute. It is signed jointly by the Renewable Fuels Association's Bob Dinneen and Growth Energy's Tom Buis.

Enough is enough! Time to end our addiction to foreign oil and support homegrown American fuels that create jobs, improve our environment and provide consumers with a choice and savings at the pump. Visit www.GrowthEnergy.org for more information. (PRNewsFoto/Growth Energy) (PRNewsFoto/GROWTH ENERGY)

Dinneen and Buis write, "Despite the millions of dollars your industry has spent on bogus TV ads, there hasn't been a single reported case of engine damage from ethanol blended fuels like E15. But last week, Exxon admitted selling customers in Louisiana more than 5 million gallons of oil-based gasoline that was so bad that it's been stopping cars dead in their tracks. In fact, one auto shop reported 40 or 50 customers who had trouble starting their engines as a result of Exxon's contaminated gas. That's 40 or 50 more cases of engine problems than have been reported in the entire country from E15, and that's just one shop in Baton Rouge!"

Going directly at the current API boat ads, the open letter continues, "While your ads are misleading people about the impact of ethanol on marine engines, boats in Houston are in dry dock because of your oil spill! In fact, that one company has been fined for 77 different oil spills since 2008, which means they have averaged more than one oil spill per month for the last six years. That's a lot of boaters impacted by oil spills, Jack."

The open letter is summed up in one simple closing thought, "You see, Jack, the real environmental peril is oil, not renewable fuels like ethanol."

A screenshot of the ad is available HERE.

Read the full letter with hyperlinked citations HERE.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140402/DC97056

SOURCE Growth Energy