Industry officials say the results of a federal study prepared by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the U.S. Dept. of Energy that looked at the effect ethanol blended gasoline as high as E15 and E20 has on small engines is inconclusive at best, leaves many questions unanswered and is primarily an indicator that much more research on higher ethanol blends in small engines is required.

“You can’t begin to approach the complexity of the small engine industry with the scope of this study,” says Kris Kiser, Outdoor Power Equipment Institute vice president of government affairs. “In our opinion, the study downplayed the challenges, and we’re very concerned with how they interpreted the data and wrote it up.”