Is The Underwriters Laboratory Biased Against Ethanol?
That is the question being asked by the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) in a recent letter from Ron Lamberty, ACE’s Vice President / Market Development, to August Schaefer, UL’s Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer. The Underwriters Laboratory (UL) has made a couple of moves in the last few years that seem to support such a claim. On October 5, 2006 they suspended certification of E85 dispenser even though no safety issues had been reported. After studying the problem for about a year they issued new requirements on October 16, 2007 for E85 dispensers and began accepting applications for approval. To date no E85 dispenser has received approval. One can only wonder how the lack of UL certified dispensers has slowed the spread of E85 refueling locations but it is fairly well known that Walmart was considering adding pumps at their 300 plus gas stations before certification was pulled. Now just as the ethanol industry is pushing for ethanol blends higher than 10% to be mad
