BioFuels Journal

Ethanol proponents have funded an advertisement in the Chicago Sun Times that uses the fifth anniversary of BP's 2010 Gulf oil spill disaster to promote what they consider to be a "cleaner" choice -- E15, a blend of 15% ethanol with gasoline.

The headline says that five years after the spill "Big Oil keeps spilling." The advertisement urges readers to tell the Chicago City Council to support the proposed E15 mandate it has had on the table in recent months.

The proposed ordinance requires self-serve gas stations in the city of Chicago to offer E15 at the pump as long as the sites have annual fuel sales of at least 850,000 gal and that have underground storage tank systems that support the blend. The rigorously debated proposal originated in the city council's finance committee last summer.

The advertisement is funded by a group called the Americans United for Change, which describes itself on its website as an organization that "has challenged the far right conservative voices and ideas that for too long have been mistaken for mainstream American values." The website says Americans United strives to "pass the transformational legislation coming out of the Obama White House."

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