It must have been a dark and stormy night when someone in government decided that ethanol should be mixed with gasoline.

Actually, I believe that person must have been consuming some ethanol when deciding it could help solve America’s dependence on foreign oil.

Many of us have heard of ethanol or have seen the labels on gasoline pumps that state the fuel being pumped contains up to 10 percent ethanol. There must have been another dark and stormy night of some government person consuming even more ethanol because the decision has been made to increase the ethanol content in our gasoline to 15 percent. It would make sense if ethanol is as good as claimed by its manufacturers but I highly disagree with it being in my car’s fuel tank, chainsaw or riding lawnmower.

To be honest, the reason I am writing this column is because of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, who opposes the increase of ethanol in gasoline. She states that many Mainers are skeptical of ethanol for good reason because many of our cars and small engines do not run safely on this combination. It was also stated that cars older than 2001, or any motorcycle, heavy-duty vehicles or non-road engines like chainsaws could not use the new mix because the emissions would be worse than the 10 percent mix.

This would result in gasoline stations having to sell the two mixes of ethanol and gasoline, which could end up in consumers being confused. And I thought I would never agree with Congresswoman Pingree. Ever!

Many of us have heard of ethanol but know little about it. Ethanol is also known as grain alcohol and in the United States is made primarily from corn. It can be made from other crops like sugarcane or even some types of grasses. My first problem with the manufacturing of ethanol is that corn is a major food source for us and many other countries so the use of corn to make ethanol means much higher prices for corn and byproducts like corn syrup, which is used primarily as a sweetener instead of cane sugar. There are some reports that four out of 10 rows of corn being planted are for ethanol production instead of human or livestock consumption.

Another problem I have with ethanol is that it is heavily subsidized with tax breaks. Actually, it’s billions of dollars of tax breaks and how many states are known as large producers of corn? That’s right, folks, members of Congress from those Midwest, corn-producing states are also reaping the benefits of ethanol production.

So if ethanol is the answer to our dependence on foreign oil, why is it being subsidized in the first place and why don’t we just run everything on it? Therein lies the biggest problem of all and that’s because ethanol isn’t as great as advertised. Ethanol has two-thirds less BTUs of energy per pound as pure gasoline. All told, it also takes more than a gallon of fossil fuel energy to make a gallon of ethanol. This means it’s more expensive to make a gallon of ethanol, which mixed with gasoline results in less gas mileage, than burning straight gasoline.

Since ethanol is grain alcohol it also creates other problems as well. Alcohol absorbs water, which is why the so-called dry gas additives remove water from gas tanks on our vehicles. If ethanol sucks up enough water it separates from the gasoline, which happened in one of my vehicles last year. Ethanol also ate through the rubber gas lines and plastic gas tank on my riding lawnmower. My gas mileage decreased on every vehicle I have owned in the past few years and I am positive it did the damage to the engine of my 1980 Cadillac, which caused me to scrap it.

Ethanol is also called grain, drinking or ethyl alcohol. Some in government have been tipping too many bottles of it, thus causing them to believe burning it in our vehicles is a good thing. The next thing they will tell you is that wind turbines will solve all of our problems by producing all the electricity we use. But just like ethanol they will not be telling you it is heavily subsidized, costs more to produce and that our electric bills will greatly increase.

Lane Hiltunen lives in Windham.