Everyone knows that burning oil is bad for the air. What many don’t realize is that a gallon of motor fuel contains a mixture of different petroleum products ranging from dyes to octane-boosting aromatics like benzene, toluene and xylene. Together, aromatics make up as much as 39 percent of the unleaded gasoline that comes out of the pump, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
They are the main culprits associated with smog, ultra-fine particles and carcinogenic compounds that leak into the air from your tailpipe and contribute to rising asthma rates. Fortunately, these toxics can be replaced with clean-burning alternatives, like high-octane ethanol.
The health ramifications are significant. According to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Janet McCabe, “In 2014, even after a generation of steadily improving air quality, 57 million Americans still lived in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution. This pollution makes children’s asthma worse, increases hospital admissions and emergency room visits, and is responsible for thousands of premature deaths. People who live close to highways and ports are disproportionately exposed and bear more of the health impacts.
“Parents watching their children struggle to breathe care about this, and so does the EPA. Without the EPA’s current standards for vehicles, fuels and engines, by 2030 we would have up to 40,000 more premature deaths every year, and every year American workers would miss an estimated 5.8 million more work days due to illnesses associated with poor air quality.”
But far more could be done. The Renewable Fuel Standard is the best leverage lawmakers have to protect our health from toxic tailpipe emissions. Enacted with bipartisan support in 2005, the RFS requires that oil companies add renewable energy into America’s fuel mix, creating an incentive to replace toxic octane boosters with ethanol and other biofuels. By providing a natural boost to the oxygen level in gasoline, ethanol allows for cleaner, more efficient engine performance. That is why NASCAR drivers use a 15 percent ethanol blend during all their races.
Thanks to the RFS, nearly all gasoline in the United States now contains at least 10 percent ethanol, according to the Energy Information Administration. As that share continues to grow, the volume of toxic additives in our fuel will continue to shrink. This is especially important to vulnerable members of our society, including young children, the elderly, and less-affluent urban communities that struggle with air pollution.
Unsurprisingly, oil companies are fighting back, claiming that biofuels don’t work in modern engines. Extensive U.S. Department of Energy tests have proved them wrong, and the EPA approved blends up to 15 percent for the vast majority of cars on the road. Other cars, like Flex Fuel vehicles, are designed to run on blends up to 85 percent.
As a result, American drivers are in the position to demand cleaner air and better choices at the pump. The American Lung Association has called on the EPA to accelerate the process by supporting the use of E85 to “significantly reduce life-cycle carbon-dioxide emissions, carbon-monoxide pollution and many other harmful pollutants, including benzene, a known human carcinogen.”
At the same time, biofuels are helping to reduce reliance on foreign oil, curb climate change and support home-grown jobs. Depending on the feedstock, ethanol can reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions by anywhere from 34 percent to 100 percent or more compared to gasoline, according to Energy Department research. And, in 2015, biofuels displaced 527 million barrels of foreign oil, redirecting that economic activity to a domestic industry that supports more than 852,000 high-tech, green American jobs.
With continued support for the RFS, the benefits from renewable energy will continue to grow and those at risk of asthma and other repertory ailments can breathe a little easier. Lawmakers should keep them in mind the next time an oil lobbyist suggests that America should repeal or replace the RFS.
