Corn is OK in its place. It’s great on the cob with salt and butter. Corn makes a good chowder when mixed with potatoes, onions and heavy cream. It’s also good for fattening up our Western beef critters. But mixing it with gasoline is just plain dumb — even if it makes the Green Movement feel good.

Ethanol gas, which is gasoline spiked with 10 percent corn, is hell on chainsaws, outboard motors, lawn mowers, weed whackers and other small engines. This is not a matter of opinion; it is a matter of fact. Ask any small-engine technician. Ethanol gas will clog up a carburetors, among other things.

If you put enough ethanol in your vehicle gas tank, it will also raise havoc, even a late-model vehicle. Truth is we have been burning corn as a way to accommodate an agricultural surplus and please the Green Movement.

To make matters worse, ethanol makers (corn lobby) are pushing the EPA to increase the percentage of ethanol in American gasoline. Already, in some 16 states E15 gasoline (15 percent ethanol) is being sold at the pumps. Incredibly, the EPA allows it!

Did you know that the higher the level of ethanol in your fuel, the more likely you are to destroy your engine? When levels go above 10 percent ethanol, fuel burns hotter and often reduces engine life. But adding more is exactly what ethanol makers are trying to push past the EPA. 

Unless action is taken, Maine will be pumping E15 gas. There is a way to bring a halt to this nonsense. Legislation is working its way through Congress that has the potential to put some sanity back into our national fuel equation. According to the Boat Owners Association of the US, “The Renewable Fuel Standard Reform Act of 2015 needs the support of right thinking sportsmen and anyone who has had enough of corn-fired gasoline. The RFS Reform Act acknowledges the reality of America’s declining fuel consumption, allows for the investment in other more compatible biofuels, and erases the twisted math that forces more ethanol onto a marketplace that neither demands it, nor can physically absorb it at safe levels.”

What can you do to slow down the corn burners?

Contact your congressional representative. Based on the politics of our Washington delegation, you might have the best luck contacting Sen. Collins or U.S. Rep. Poliquin. Collins’ Bangor office number is 207-945-0417. Poliquin’s Bangor office number is 207-942-0583.

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He isalso a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WQVM-FM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected] . He has two books “A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook” and his latest, “Backtrack.” Online information is available at www.maineoutdoorpublications.com.