Who I am

I am Dean Billing, I live in a small town in central Oregon and I own an old 1962 Cessna 172 airplane that runs on unleaded auto gas without ethanol. (Sold 03/12/2009 because it was too hard to get the proper fuel for the airplane.) Few people realize that unleaded auto gas is an approved fuel for aviation use, but it can’t have ethanol in it. Oregon passed a mandatory E10 law last year with no exceptions, which would have grounded my airplane. I began studying the ethanol situation in America and was appalled that so much tax money was being given to ethanol producers to make fuel ethanol which has a dubious record of doing anything that is claimed for it. In my research I created a web site documenting how the mandatory ethanol bill came about in Oregon. (www.stopeio.com) It is a classic example of corporate interests pandering for public handouts. The web site includes links to the audio recordings of the “public hearings” for the bill that essentially no one from the public was invited too.

I have no objection to ethanol in gasoline as long as I have a choice. I wouldn’t put it in any vehicle I own, but if you want to that is fine, it should be your choice. Some people have to have a choice because ethanol blended gasoline actually causes damage in their application. What I object to is the fact that the only way ethanol can survive in the energy marketplace is because of mandatory programs with no choice and massive amounts of public money thrown at the ethanol and oil industry. It is time to remove all government ethanol mandates, tax credits, corporate subsidies and tariffs against foreign ethanol and see if it can survive in the energy marketplace. What is it about ethanol that it can’t compete in a free market?