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| Ethanol Leads To A Lawsuit |
 Barry Treahy's beloved Sally Ann sputtered and choked for months and all of his attempts to fix her fell short. He changed fuel filters, rebuilt the carburetor and, at the end of his rope, cut into the gas tank and cleaned out the caramel-colored gunk he found inside. Twice.
Sally Ann, his 20 foot fishing boat, was sitting on the street with her outer hull plug open to let residual water drain out. Gasoline started to pour into the bilge and down the street as the 55 gallon gas tank failed.
Ethanol-laced gasoline was dissolving his boat's fiberglass fuel tank. Resin was clogging the filters and eating through the tank.
Lawrence Turner, also a victim of ethanol-related damage to the tune of $35,000, a resident of Studio City, California, a state that has required all gasoline to carry 5.7% ethanol since 2004, decided he wasn't going to take it lying down. He has sued Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and either other gasoline producers and distributors, arguing that their gasoline was sold at marinas without warning boaters of the damaging side effects of ethanol.
"It caught me completely by surprise," Turner told the Los Angeles Times. "I figured if you went to a marine gas station and filled up your tank, you were fine to operate." Turner's twin engine, semi-custom Mediterranean sport fisher Grateful Med is still being repaired after ethanol destroyed his fuel tank. Mechanics had to cut through his hull to remove the tank bit by bit. An aluminum tank was installed and engine repairs still await.
"As I reflected on the situation, I thought about the fact that there were never any warnings from the fuel companies that the product they were selling could damage the tank that it was going into," Turner said. "What if people pulled up to their local gas station [in their cars] and all of the sudden their gas tank started dissolving?"
Shell President John Hofmeister countered that argument while in attendance at a low-carbon fuels conference. "There were years of advance notification that this change was coming," he said, and added that ethanol's effect on fiberglass has been known for some time.
Turner's lawsuit seeks damages and restitution from the fuel companies as well as class-action status for other boat owners in California to recoup the cost of ethanol related repairs.
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