Fwd from Mike Jureidini: >From: "Mike Jureidini \(SAFF\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Ethanol article in Sydney Morning Herald >Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 10:25:08 +0930 > >Keith, > >Finally someone in the mainstream media has spoken out about the >real story behind the scare campaign against ethanol in Australia. >The following article is from the Opinion section of The Sydney >Morning Herald, from Monday 28th April. Enjoy!! > >Regards, > >Mike Jureidini >Biofuels Consultant >Australian Farmers Fuel (SAFF) >
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/27/1051381850427.html > Ethanol fuel line has motorists labouring under misapprehension > By Paul Sheehan > April 28 2003 > > > > A Few days before Christmas last year, on December 18, this newspaper > published a consumer horror story on the front page. It unleashed a > barrage of controversy about the dangers of buying cheap petrol, > especially petrol with high levels of ethanol. > > Good story. Pity it wasn't true. > > It was about a motorist who saved a few dollars buying cheap petrol only > to be been hit with a repair bill of $746.90 because of extensive engine > damage caused by contaminated fuel, in this case, it was claimed, > excessive amounts of ethanol. But the motor mechanic upon >whose words the > story hung, Neil Streeting, says everything in the story was wrong. > > "I'm still really angry," he told me last week. "I never claimed that I > had repaired 10 cars damaged by ethanol. I never said anything >like that. > What I told the SMH about an engine being wrecked actually related to > another vehicle damaged by petrol contaminated by kerosene over a year > ago." > > The problem was not ethanol, Streeting said, but unscrupulous service > station operators who sold petrol containing a variety of cheap > substitutes for petrol: "I've got nothing against ethanol. It's a good > fuel. It's good for the country." > > Why would ethanol be good for the country? Because - and we now enter > terrain of considerable debate - if Australia were to use petrol blended > with up to 10 per cent ethanol (the maximum level at which everyone, > including the oil industry, is comfortable), it would cut our >oil imports, > boost the rural economy (which produces ethanol, primarily from grain), > reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions and cut the amount of > pollutants caused by the additives in petrol. > > All good, and all up for debate, but the bad publicity >surrounding ethanol > has been caused by something else: unscrupulous service >station operators > selling petrol contaminated with cheap substitutes, or >motorists not being > told they were buying petrol that is blended with up to 20 per cent > ethanol. These are quite separate issues. > > Meanwhile, the ethanol industry is hemorrhaging. "It was all a political > set-up," Streeting told me. "I'm just a nobody in workerland, >but the next > thing I knew I was in the middle of a political firestorm. It took me a > while to work it out, but I realised this was all about Labor >bashing the > Liberals." > > Streeting's media adventure began when he got a call from the >office of a > federal Labor MP in Sydney asking if he'd encountered problems caused by > contaminated fuel. "I told her, 'Yes, I'm working on a car >right now that > has been damaged by contaminated fuel.' I never mentioned the word > 'ethanol'. She asked if I would talk to the media. Like a >dickhead I said > yes. I got a call from the Herald within an hour." > > As readers would expect, when the Herald later learnt there >were problems > with the story, it investigated the matter, published a correction, and > assigned two senior journalists to clean up the mess. But the story had > taken on a life of its own. Politicians had rushed in, and other dubious > stories found their way into print and onto the airwaves. > > On January 11, The Daily Telegraph ran a story under the >headline: "Costs > of ethanol: $800 in repairs and four days' pay". Even though >the headline > and the opening of the story flatly blamed ethanol, the story itself > contained absolutely nothing to back up the claim: "Mr Whalan >fears he is > the latest victim of ethanol-laced unleaded petrol ... While he has not > conducted tests on the petrol in his tank, Mr Whalan's >mechanic suspects a > high ethanol content could be to blame ... 'Up until it gets tested we > can't say for sure,' said [mechanic] Rocco Zinghini." > > In other words, shoot first, ask questions later. Whalan's petrol was > later tested. The Australian Biofuels Association, the ethanol >lobby group > which takes such stories very seriously, found that the test showed no > ethanol was in the petrol. Not one word of apology or correction was > published by The Daily Telegraph. > > But the way this story unfolded was not really about consumers. It was > about politics. On the same day the Herald's ethanol horror story ran, > Labor's shadow treasurer, Bob McMullan, gave a press briefing >at which he > thundered: "Today's further news about specific cases of >damage to engines > ... as a result of excessive ethanol in petrol sends one very clear > message. John Howard should go down on his knees and apologise >to ... the > hundreds of thousands of other motorists in Sydney who are paying > hundreds, and, in some cases, thousands of dollars to repair their cars, > because John Howard will not allow the Government to do what every > independent adviser says they should do, which is set a 10 per >cent limit > on ethanol in petrol ... > > "We have spoken to a number of mechanics ... More than half a dozen tell > the same story as the gentleman in The Sydney Morning Herald >this morning > - they speak of cars coming in with damage to engines and reduced > performance as a result of purchasing petrol with an excess of >ethanol. We > have been out and had the petrol tested on a number of >occasions and it is > clear that the cause on those occasions ... was ethanol ..." > > The tests? They were two complaints from constituents who had written to > two Labor MPs in Sydney, both claiming that petrol with 17 per cent > ethanol had caused engine damage. But Bob Gordon, who runs the Biofuels > Association, says he's still waiting to see those tests, four >months later. > > Labor has never been dishonest about where this story came from: it came > from the Labor Party. And the media exercise worked beautifully, > especially the repeated references to the Manildra group - >which produces > most of Australia's ethanol - being a "major Liberal Party donor". > > That was the real target. As for the Australian ethanol industry, it is > lying by the side of the road, bleeding, the victim of a hit and run. > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions. http://us.click.yahoo.com/cjB9SD/od7FAA/AG3JAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
