In reading Samuel E. Dantzler's letter regarding the problem with the ethanol-gasoline mix with small engines (lawn equipment, chain saws, blowers, pressure washers, generators), he placed the blame on gasoline companies.

Unfortunately, the problem is not with the oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch, Murphy Oil, or state-owned Petroleos de Venezuels SA, but instead with Congress and the Nancy Pelosi dictatorship that has controlled Congress that has stifled debate and discussion. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is the main culprit in the problem of the ethanol-gasoline mix that affects small engines.

The act, which was passed by a two-thirds majority using the speaker's tactics of barring debate, discussion and opposition participation, and restricting who can read bills to the speaker and chairman of the respective committees, thus making a presidential veto impossible, was a bill proposed by fringe environmentalists that control the government today. It bans regular light bulbs, forcing us into mercury-laden bulbs, increases fuel economy standards designed to ban family cars and business trucks in order to force people into two-seat microcars and increases taxes on automakers through the increased CAFE standard.

The Renewable Fuel Mandate requires in the 15-year period from 2008 until 2022 that the United States must produce ethanol for fuel -- from 9 million gallons last year to 36 million gallons of ethanol fuel in 2022. Thus the mandatory quadrupling of "renewable fuels" (ethanol) as part of federal law is to blame, and not the oil companies. According to a report by the AAA, ethanol is a minimum 20-30 cents more expensive than gasoline per gallon, and would be more expensive if not for a federal subsidy of 51 cents per gallon. Worse yet, fuel economy drops considerably with ethanol, and blending it with gasoline destroys the advantages of alcohol fuel -- its higher octane rating and safety (a seven-car crash at the start of the 1964 Indianapolis 500 burned two drivers to death; USAC, World of Outlaws, IRL, and some drag race cars have used straight alcohol fuel since then because of safety issues versus gasoline; a gas-ethanol mix is more dangerous, as seen in last year's American Le Mans Series race in Mid-Ohio with a pit fire). A further byproduct is the increasing cost of food, feed and other food-related products, thus increasing the cost of food to appease the environmentalist lobby.

The real problem is the federal government is forcing the alcohol fuel mandate on everyone, and the all-powerful liberal majority (or even monopoly) is pushing it ever further to appease their environmentalist lobby. The real problem is that the Pelosi policy that President Obama supports, the 2007 Energy Security and Independence Act, has grossly increased the mandated ethanol fuel into gasoline. These policies must be repealed, and it is the government, not the oil companies, to force us into their green-earth society.

-- Hou-Yin Chang, Orangeburg

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