BAA CEO, Bruce Harrison, "laments the lack of real debate around the complete picture in comparing of fuel economy of petrol with E10."

The BAA notes that "Recent press articles have compared the fuel consumption of petrol and E10 in one type of car and not used a recognised fuel consumption test methodology."

But what is really important is that we need to put this debate into a proper context with other fuel economy consumption factors.

First:
There are many factors that impact on fuel consumption in a vehicle including tyre pressures, percentage of short trips versus longer trips, driving technique and so on. All of these have impacts on fuel economy in the 3-10% range.

Second:
It is not widely know that unleaded petrol can vary in its composition depending on which refinery it was made at (either in Australia or overseas) and the type of crude oil used to manufacture the fuel. This can result in fuel consumption variability of anything up to 5%.

Third:
Ethanol is a clean fuel in the sense that it reduces vehicle emissions. E10 also cleans the engine of your vehicle and will reduce the deposits of gums and varnish, particularly in the intake part of the engine. Your vehicle will then run cleaner and therefore more efficiently for longer.

Fourth:
The previous Federal Government had developed a policy to be implemented from 1 July 2011 whereby excise rates would be applied on the basis of energy content so that fuels such as petrol will pay more tax than fuels like ethanol, Liquefied Petroleum Gas and Compressed Natural Gas.

Fifth:
There has been much focus on the price of fuels and yet no mention made of the fact that the Federal Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will be factoring in the price of higher carbon content in fuels like petrol from 2010. Biofuels such as ethanol will not be subject to a carbon price in recognition of its greenhouse credentials.

We also need to recognise that there are not too many low carbon fuel choices that can be used in our existing transport fuel infrastructure. Biofuels such as E10 is one option we can use now.

In fact the BAA estimates that if Australia were to have E10 (10% ethanol) and B20 (20% biodiesel) blends we would be saving 7.1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year.