HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (April 17, 2015) — All I want is to be able to choose when to use ethanol-laced gasoline in my vehicles.
I've never seen ONE of my columns in Autoweek generate as much controversy as the one I did in the March 2 issue (“Can't We Just Get Rid of Ethanol?”). I have an ethanol-fuel vehicle — my E85 Corvette — and it runs fine on ethanol. We built it that way. It's fast!
Today's cars with modern fuel systems run fine on ethanol-laced gasoline. My old cars don't; but I have no choice.
I guess that's my main complaint. It's like having to eat every meal for the rest of your life at the same place, even though you know the food they serve might make you sick.
In California, every fuel (even racing gas) has to have ethanol in it. That doesn't seem right, that we're not allowed to make a choice. As I made clear in my previous column, older motorcycles, antique vehicles, small gas engines — ethanol hurts them all. Judging from the comments we've seen, readers (more than 95 percent of the responses) agree with me.
I suppose any number of those folks could have some financial interest in their stance, but just the same…if ethanol is so good, let people choose to buy it.
If non-ethanol gasoline is 10 cents or 20 cents per gallon more and people are willing to pay the difference, they should be allowed to do it.
Perhaps I was remiss in the March column in not mentioning enough that we can't choose. Ethanol people are calling me a hypocrite, but the fact that using the stuff is made mandatory is unfair.
For a link to Jay's previous column, “Jay Leno hates ethanol,” click here.
People have sent me photos of fuel regulators and fuel pumps that have been ruined by ethanol. One guy had an ‘89 Corvette, and the fuel system was all rusted out because of the switch to ethanol.
I have heard about these problems from enough people. It's not like I'm sitting here making all this up. The critics are mostly people involved in the ethanol industry. I have a lot of 25-year-old and even older cars that I use all the time that run terribly on ethanol.
One last time: All I am asking is, let us have a choice.
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In addition to being a comedian and now-retired TV host of the Tonight Show, Autoweek columnist Jay Leno has more than 280 cars and motorcycles in his collection. He wrote this piece for Detroit-based Autoweek, a sister publication of Tire Business.
