Red Cavaney, the president of the American Petroleum Institute, held a conference call for bloggers only on April 18. API assures The Barrel that it will be invited next time, but our relative youth meant we weren't on the organization's radar this time around.
A transcript of the call shows that ethanol was very much on the mind of the questioners, among other issues:
The call occured just after the release of the study by Stanford University atmospheric scientist Mark Jacobson projecting significant increases in some atmospheric pollutants should ethanol use continue to increase.
Cavaney is concerned that for the industry, the increased use of ethanol is going to wind up in another round of lawsuits just like those the industry faces because of the use of MTBE. Cavaney said that during the move to reformulated gasoline, when it was clear that Mtbe was going to be an all but mandated additive, the industry said to the federal government, "If you’re going to embrace something this big, you need to take a look at it."
API's fear is that such a review won't happen in the rush to use more ethanol, and if air quality decreases as a result, the lawsuits against the companies that have blended ethanol will be targets of a new round of litigation. "So I think maybe what this Mark Jacobson study may well do is help serve as a bit of catalyst to make sure that we do take a good look at this so we fully understand what the results are going to be, regardless of whether he’s correct or not," Cavaney said.
Cavaney's skepticism toward ethanol -- not cellulosic, but corn-based -- comes through clearly. "The energy content is only about 25 percent less than it would be if you used regular gasoline," Cavaney said. "In the many years I’ve been in this industry, I have never had a consumer, an elected official, tell me that I want to pay more for my fuel and I want to get less miles per gallon, and that’s exactly what you get when you buy E85."
The API has begun, and will look to grow, a marketing campaign boosting the use of diesel. Cavaney notes that ULSD is much cleaner than the smoke-belching fuel of the late 70's, when diesel cars flopped in the US, and how much more energy efficient diesel is than other fuels. The initial focus will be on trucks, but Cavaney expects a push by automakers to sell diesel cars in the US:
"They’re going come out, as a matter of fact, I think starting this summer and thereafter, so there aren’t enough of them out. But we intend to, when they are starting to be available and there is promotion of their advantages by the auto companies, we’re also going to be doing companion advertising ourself to help make people aware of the opportunity."
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