Government outlaw: ethanol content in gasoline rises ‘by force’

This time, Minister Alexandre Silveira did not seek to deceive anyone and said publicly – alleging war reasons – that he will not respect the Fuel of the Future Law. And to authorize by force the increase in the percentage of ethanol in gasoline, from 30% to 32%, “for 180 days, on a temporary basis”. Any attitude of the government to replace fossil fuel with biofuel should deserve applause from Brazilian society. But never causing technical and financial losses to the driver, for not respecting the legal requirement to prove the “technical feasibility” of the new percentage of alcohol in gasoline.

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The minister claims that the new content has already been tested when gasoline ethanol went from 27% to 30%. Half-truth: the tests with 32% were carried out due to the prudence that must be kept (tolerance) due to the natural variations of the mixture when the content was increased from 27% to 30%. In other words, the addition of E30 to E32 would require tests with 34% ethanol.

Another problem, not made public, is that the tests with 32% ethanol caused problems in some cars and especially in motorcycles, which refused to “start” on the coldest mornings. Abraciclo, an association of motorcycle manufacturers, officially alerted the government about this concern in August last year, when E27 gasoline went to E30.

A technical matter: the engines of our cars were designed for E22 gasoline (22% alcohol) and the long-term consequences of this increase that now reaches 10 percentage points (or 45% increase) in the mixture is not known. Simply because of the absence of the necessary compatibility tests of the new fuel foisted by the government on the driver.

Finally, as the calorific value of ethanol is lower than that of gasoline, our pockets will suffer again because there will be an increase in fuel consumption. There are environmental advantages to reducing a fossil fuel by another derived from sugarcane and corn. But it is not possible to believe Minister Silveira, who once again affirmed a compensation for the increase in consumption with the reduction in the price of gasoline at the gas station. He repeats the same promise of the government – not fulfilled – in the latest increases in the percentage of alcohol authorized by his Ministry of Mines and Energy.