Dear Friends, Jamaicans at home and abroad:
Your homeland needs your voice to prevent the most callous and wanton destruction of our air basin imaginable. I have listened in anguish recently as various executives of the Energy Ministry have assailed the airwaves with misrepresentations to gain acceptance of their misguided introduction of E10 ethanol-blended gasoline. This administration having nothing to crow about after all their pre-election hype, has stooped to the glibbest of lies to effect something … anyhow. As there is still a honeymoon with the media I have not gotten them to see through their swooning and must call on you all to raise your voice for the people of Jamaica. For as you have remained silent they have raised their arrogance to match their incompetence.
Herein is the misrepresentation: on more than one occasion and by more than one representative, they have said that it was ok to mix E10 ethanol 87 gasoline with regular 87 octane gasoline… no problem they say. This is the most cavalier lie, obfuscation and misrepresentation of scientific facts. In fact, the opposite is true and is scrupulously guarded against in the USA. For the effects of mixing ethanol-containing and non-ethanol gasoline causes an astronomical increase in the evaporation of the fuel with large volumes of ozone precursor dumped into the air basin by evaporative emissions from vehicles a phenomenon called commingling. This causes increasing ozone formation, the precursor to smog, and an increased onset of asthma, emphysema and bronchitis episodes especially for our young children, elderly and those already suffering from respiratory challenges.
Nevertheless the executives of the Energy Ministry are on the TV and radio telling the public, yes you can mix the fuels! Is it ignorance or contempt for Jamaicans? Regardless, they must be made to retract this propaganda lest we allow them to turn our island paradise into a toxic air stew and our people in gasping and wheezing invalids. Please all, google commingling of ethanol blended gasoline and having digested its implications for yourself, then for Jamaica’s sake, act !
Trevor Bogle, Aka EnergyMan [email protected]
