E-15 jump-start
Ethanol backers hope NASCAR raises corn-based fuel’s profile
Jeff Broin’s silhouette shines in the glossy hood of the modified grass-green Chevrolet SS. It’s moments before the start of NASCAR’s Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway, and Broin is having a quick chat with young driver Austin Dillon.
A racing fan for a decade, Broin is now a NASCAR sponsor. And what really has him revved up is what’s splashed in bold white letters across the hood of Dillon’s racer and the stuff in its fuel tank: “E-15,” spelled out more precisely as “15% Ethanol.”
The 49-year-old Broin, founder of Poet LLC, the biggest U.S. ethanol producer, is the architect of a promotion by which NASCAR uses gasoline mixed with 15 percent concentrations of the corn-based fuel to power its $150,000 supercars. He and the trade group American Ethanol have been counting on that sales job to help sway public opinion — a task getting harder every day.
“It’s just a great way to show how our product performs under some of the harshest conditions on the planet,” said Broin above the din of revving engines and amid the singular smell of race day — the aroma of barbecue pits, beer, gasoline and motor oil all mixing in the humid air.
If the sponsorship has raised the profile of ethanol among race fans, it’s done little to quiet a decade-old debate about whether ethanol is a renewable-fuels godsend or a government-subsidized mistake.
Ethanol’s enemies cross political lines. Many conservative outfits see ethanol requirements as an insult to free-market energy thinking. Liberal-leaning green groups say ethanol production encourages farming on marginal lands, increases food prices for the poor and takes more energy to make than it produces.
They seem to be making headway. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the ethanol program, proposed a sharp cutback in ethanol mandates that were expanded by Congress in 2007.
In Broin’s view, such setbacks are precisely why he and ethanol’s advocates have to take the marketing offensive. “What I know about ethanol is that it’s not only the cleanest fuel on the planet earth,” said Broin. “It’s the only liquid transportation fuel that’s in sync with the environment.”
Ethanol’s real enemy first appeared in 2008 when gasoline demand started to slow, he says. The feds at the time only allowed a 10 percent mixture of ethanol for most vehicles. One way to get around the slowdown was to get higher-blend ethanol approved.
That’s when Broin formed Growth Energy — which he calls “a more aggressive
voice for renewable fuels and agriculture” and one that “could change the argument” in favor of 15 percent ethanol.
The EPA approved a 15 percent mixture in 2011. But E-15’s rollout has been limited so far because of refiners’ worries that the new blend might impede engine performance or even cause engine damage.
Broin sees that as bunk — and says his promotional deal with NASCAR, which will run through 2019, shows E-15 is safe.
As for NASCAR, “We wanted to be a greener sport across all platforms,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s senior vice president. The race cars, meanwhile, run fine on E-15 — actually gaining horsepower, he says.
Broin, the trade group and NASCAR all declined to say what the sponsorship costs. On its racing circuits website, NASCAR prices a primary sponsorship at as much as $35 million per season.
Ethanol has a new and potent enemy. The shale revolution — employing hydraulic fracturing or fracking — helped the U.S. last year pump more oil than at any time since 1983, vastly reducing fears of the shortages that started the ethanol boom in the first place.
Broin’s other problem is that while consumers may abide ethanolblended gasoline, nobody seems to love it. A short walk around Michigan International shows the NASCAR campaign isn’t changing all minds.
Mike Meyer, a 57-yearold Detroit grocery-store loading-dock worker, is a 30-year NASCAR fan. In between drags of his Pall Mall Menthol 100’s, he says he won’t put ethanolblended gas in his 1999 Honda motorcycle, seeking out unblended regular instead.
“That ethanol thing — you get less miles per gallon,” he said.