The formal public comment period for a proposal currently before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to raise the allowable limit of ethanol blended into standard transportation gasoline from 10% to 15% ended this past week, and the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute signed on to an  Alliance for a Safe Alternative Fuels Environment coalition comment that the move poses serious safety and regulatory risks, and the process itself is illegal.

The Alliance for a Safe Alternative Fuels Environment (AllSAFE), which speaks for manufacturers on fuel-related legislation representing 400 million products that over 250 million Americans own and operate, including recreational boats and marine engines, chain saws, lawnmowers, motor vehicles, motorcycles, all terrain vehicles (ATVs), snowmobiles, generators, and related vehicles and equipment, recently delivered official comments voicing concern to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about pro-ethanol group Growth Energy’s fuel waiver application to the EPA for 15% blended ethanol gasoline, or E-15.

“We’re happy to build new equipment for new fuels with increased ethanol but we will not sit idly by and put our customers’ safety and economic interests at risk.”—Kris Kiser, Outdoor Power Equipment Institute

The small engine-ethanol issue has gone national with a recent report on U.S. National Public Radio featuring an instructor at WyoTech automotive school in Laramie, Wyo., the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute’s executive VP of government affairs Kris Kiser and Ron Lamberty, a spokesman for the American Coalition of Ethanol.

Under the provocative headline “Ethanol Could Kill Your Small Engine,” the story is available as an audio podcast on the NPR web site (marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/12/30/pm_ethanol_kills/), while a full text of the interviews and feature are available here