Making E15 The New Regular Would Greatly Reduce CO2 Emissions

Friday, 16 January 2015 00:00

E10 or gasoline with a 10 percent blend of ethanol has significantly reduced CO2 emissions. In Minnesota alone, it is estimated that E10 usage has prevented the release of 766,571 metric tons of CO2 in the air. So how much better would it be if all fuel usage in the state was E15?

A quick disclaimer: the number above is based on the amount of gasoline consumed in Minnesota in 2013 (2.45 billion gallons) as per data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). It is also on the assumption that all gasoline consumed in 2013 was E10 and doesn't take into account diesel usage or the small amount of marine fuel consumed. Nor does it take into account for E85 and sales of fuels with higher blends of ethanol.

Now, if all that gasoline consumed in 2013 had been upgraded to E15 from E10, how much more CO2 would we have prevented from being emitted? According to the EIA's formula, it would have amounted to a further reduction of 399,161 metric tons of CO2 from the air. In total, 1.16 million metric tons of CO2 wouldn't have been emitted.

That, according to the EPA's greenhouse emissions calculator would have been the equivalent of removing 245,417 cars from the roads in Minnesota for that year. 2013 is long gone. But 2015 is here and if we're serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we've got a solution that would make an immediate impact. Now, isn't that enough reason to make E15 the new regular?