The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which includes Detroit’s Big Three, Toyota and seven other automakers, have written a letter to Congress urging more research before approving ethanol blends like E12 or E15. That idea “is premature, and since EPA has never allowed conventional vehicles to use higher ethanol blends, the research on their potential impacts on vehicles not designed, tested or warranted for their use is incomplete,” the letter said.

This past spring, a group representing ethanol producers filed an emergency request with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, asking EPA to waive its standard data-gathering process for transportation fuel changes and make E15—a 50% increase from E10 blends—a standard transportation fuel. Four Midwest congressmen followed up by introducing legislation requiring the EPA to accept the request. The original emergency waiver request to the EPA requires the agency to deliver a decision by December 1.

To respond to the ethanol industry initiatives, automakers have joined with the oil, ethanol, small engine, marine, outdoor power equipment and motorcycle industries to create a task force, along with the Energy Department and EPA, to assess different blends. Dubbed the “midlevel ethanol blends research coordination council,” the group says Congress needs to allocate money to fund testing. In its recent letter to Congress, automakers asked it to set aside $17 million “to complete the necessary vehicle testing.” Ethanol proponents have repeatedly referred to a small, unscientific study released last year, covered extensively here at powerETblog, in which newer cars performed OK on E15 blends, but left no doubt that millions and millions of older cars and small engine products are subject to major engine failures with higher ethanol blended fuel.