EPA OKS more ethanol in fuel for cars

WASHINGTON - U.S. regulators have backed a request to sharply boost the use of ethanol in more than half the nation's cars, raising the stakes in a contentious debate over the safety and cost of converting more corn into fuel.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's announcement last week increasing the maximum ethanol blend rate in gasoline to 15 percent from 10 percent in vehicles built from 2001 to 2006 was not a surprise, coming just months after it allowed so-called E15 in cars and trucks built in 2007 or later.

But it is still likely to fire heated rhetoric over higher ethanol use at a time of rising food and fuel costs, even though it may be years yet before E15 clears the legal and logistical hurdles that effectively prevent its sale today.

Pushing back the so-called "blend wall" that has prevented producers from injecting more ethanol into the nation's fuel supply will help reduce the U.S. dependence on foreign crude oil, replacing it with homegrown fuel, a boon for corn farmers who already sell 40 percent of their crop to ethanol makers.

But it has been fiercely opposed by ranchers who fear higher costs for their livestock feed will hurt margins; by refiners and blenders who would have to pay for new storage tanks; and by service station owners and automakers who worry that putting higher ethanol blends in older cars could open them up to lawsuits if the fuel damages their engines.