Oil refiner sues California over ethanol

Tesoro Corp. - an oil company based in Texas with operations in California - has filed suit against the California Air Resources Board in an attempt to prevent the amount of ethanol blended into the state’s gasoline increasing from the current 5.7 percent to 10 percent by the end of 2009.

The oil company says it has “concerns” about the impact of ethanol on everything from greenhouse gas emissions to food prices. Yet the lawsuit, according to this report from the LA Times, says “precious little” about food and focuses instead on things that may impact the company’s own bottom line. (No surprise there.)

Tesoro apparently missed the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision about the Renewable Fuels Standard and food prices. Maybe company execs don’t read the local papers, since that challenge came from Texas, too.

And maybe it hasn’t seen the research showing that ethanol:

• Reduces tailpipe carbon monoxide emissions by as much as 30 percent
• Reduces exhaust volatile organic compounds emissions by 12 percent
• Reduces toxic emissions by 30 percent
• Reduces particulate matter emissions by more than 25 percent
• Ethanol use in 2006 reduced carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions by about 8 million tons. (That’s like taking 1.2 million cars off the road.)

The LA Times article gets it right:

The problem for Tesoro and other refiners is that the whole move to biofuels is eating away demand for its products. That might have something to do with the company's sudden concern about ethanol's impact on the environment and the nation's food supply.

Or maybe the oil company really believes that the best alternative to oil is ... more oil.