Just read that a law firm has filed a class action law suit against all of the major oil companys. Class is California boaters who have purchased fuel with ethanol, and Calif. boaters who have damage done to fuel tanks, and engines due to ethanol.
Let me know if anyone would like more information on this.
class action suit
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CaptPatrick
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Jim,
Thanks for the "Heads Up"! Man, we knew three years ago that this day was coming...
California law firm files class-action lawsuit against major oil companies
By International Boating Industry Magazine
The Los Angeles law firm of Kabateck, Brown, Kellner, LLP has filed a class-action lawsuit against the main oil companies on behalf of California boaters. The law firm said in a statement that oil companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, Valero, and ConocoPhillips are manufacturing and selling ethanol-blended gasoline that damages marine fuel tanks, engines and other components. The lawsuit was filed earlier this week in the US District Court, Central District of California in Los Angeles.
"The price of gas is bad enough, but selling gasoline that dissolves gas tanks is a new low even for the oil companies," said Brian Kabateck, managing partner of Kabateck Brown Kellner and the lead attorney on the case, in a statement. "The oil companies knows this fuel is corrosive, but they're keeping consumers in the dark to pump up their profits. The cost to the consumer is thousands of dollars in repairs."
The suit seeks to represent all owners of boats with fibreglass fuel tanks who filled their tanks with ethanol blended gasoline from a California retailer.
The statement noted that oil companies replaced MTBE with ethanol in 2004, when MTBE was banned in many states because of environmental concerns.
"Consumers were never informed about the differences between MTBE and ethanol-mixed gasoline, nor were they informed about the disastrous effects ethanol has on fibreglass marine fuel tanks," said the statement.
"The environment pays the price for Exxon and Chevron's deception each time a damaged fuel tank leaks gasoline into the water," said Kabateck.
Kabateck said his firm has won more than US$750 million against Google, Farmer's Insurance, Eli Lilly and other major corporations.
(10 April 2008)
Thanks for the "Heads Up"! Man, we knew three years ago that this day was coming...
California law firm files class-action lawsuit against major oil companies
By International Boating Industry Magazine
The Los Angeles law firm of Kabateck, Brown, Kellner, LLP has filed a class-action lawsuit against the main oil companies on behalf of California boaters. The law firm said in a statement that oil companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, Valero, and ConocoPhillips are manufacturing and selling ethanol-blended gasoline that damages marine fuel tanks, engines and other components. The lawsuit was filed earlier this week in the US District Court, Central District of California in Los Angeles.
"The price of gas is bad enough, but selling gasoline that dissolves gas tanks is a new low even for the oil companies," said Brian Kabateck, managing partner of Kabateck Brown Kellner and the lead attorney on the case, in a statement. "The oil companies knows this fuel is corrosive, but they're keeping consumers in the dark to pump up their profits. The cost to the consumer is thousands of dollars in repairs."
The suit seeks to represent all owners of boats with fibreglass fuel tanks who filled their tanks with ethanol blended gasoline from a California retailer.
The statement noted that oil companies replaced MTBE with ethanol in 2004, when MTBE was banned in many states because of environmental concerns.
"Consumers were never informed about the differences between MTBE and ethanol-mixed gasoline, nor were they informed about the disastrous effects ethanol has on fibreglass marine fuel tanks," said the statement.
"The environment pays the price for Exxon and Chevron's deception each time a damaged fuel tank leaks gasoline into the water," said Kabateck.
Kabateck said his firm has won more than US$750 million against Google, Farmer's Insurance, Eli Lilly and other major corporations.
(10 April 2008)
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CaptPatrick
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In addition to the 1st Class Action Suit, (above & hopefully more to follow from other states), automakers will have to meet a fuel ec ... per gallon for cars and trucks by 2015 under a proposal to be unveiled today by federal regulators.
Now that's going to be somewhat difficult with just straight gasoline, with ehanol laced gas, it'll even be a bigger trick...
I'm hoping that we may be starting to see the much needed demise of the Ethanol Boondoggle.
Br,
Patrick
Now that's going to be somewhat difficult with just straight gasoline, with ehanol laced gas, it'll even be a bigger trick...
I'm hoping that we may be starting to see the much needed demise of the Ethanol Boondoggle.
Br,
Patrick
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In Memory Walter K
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Unless there's a secret memo somewhere stating that the dissolving effects of ethanol were known ahead of time, your gonna have a hard time proving that fact.
The other issue is government mandated use of alternative fuels.
Where does the liability issue actually lie?
The end result of any lawsuit is higher prices to the consumer. We will pay any damages awarded. So we get screwed from both ends with no lube.
The other issue is government mandated use of alternative fuels.
Where does the liability issue actually lie?
The end result of any lawsuit is higher prices to the consumer. We will pay any damages awarded. So we get screwed from both ends with no lube.
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Capt Dick Dean
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From where I stand it looks like Brian Kabateck is going in with experience. He says he's won before. Any when California goes so goes New York. (We can't seem to come up with anything ourselves). And let's not kid oursevles --- Mr Brian is in it for the money. And this is good. Nothing like apiece of the pie for the legal profession.
The greenies are now saying maybe this wasn't such a good idea, this ethanol. I would also like to see the comodity brokers loose big time for helping to drive the fuel prices up.
Diesel fuel is now $4.25 at the gas station and the signs appear to give the impression that it's a bargin. I'm not too far behind with 3.99 for 93 octane.
During the past week, I have read and heard the newspapers and new casts stating that the deversion of corn for ethanol is causing the third world to starve and the American citizens to go broke. McCain is against subsidies for farmers and ethanol. Yeah, what about the price of rice.
So if the politicians get hammered from all sdes maybe there is a ray of sunlight at the fuel dock.
The greenies are now saying maybe this wasn't such a good idea, this ethanol. I would also like to see the comodity brokers loose big time for helping to drive the fuel prices up.
Diesel fuel is now $4.25 at the gas station and the signs appear to give the impression that it's a bargin. I'm not too far behind with 3.99 for 93 octane.
During the past week, I have read and heard the newspapers and new casts stating that the deversion of corn for ethanol is causing the third world to starve and the American citizens to go broke. McCain is against subsidies for farmers and ethanol. Yeah, what about the price of rice.
So if the politicians get hammered from all sdes maybe there is a ray of sunlight at the fuel dock.
A/K/A El Gaupo
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In Memory Walter K
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This will come to as no surpise to anybody here, but check this out:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/ ... /index.htm
McCain in 2003:
"Ethanol is a product that would not exist if Congress didn't create an artificial market for it. No one would be willing to buy it. Yet thanks to agricultural subsidies and ethanol producer subsidies, it is now a very big business - tens of billions of dollars that have enriched a handful of corporate interests - primarily one big corporation, ADM (Archer Daniels Midland). Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve air quality."
McCain in 2006:
"I support ethanol and I think it is a vital, a vital alternative energy source not only because of our dependency on foreign oil but its greenhouse gas reduction effects," he said in an August speech in Grinnell, Iowa, as reported by the Associated Press.
I swear, every last one of them is a spineless douchebag
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/ ... /index.htm
McCain in 2003:
"Ethanol is a product that would not exist if Congress didn't create an artificial market for it. No one would be willing to buy it. Yet thanks to agricultural subsidies and ethanol producer subsidies, it is now a very big business - tens of billions of dollars that have enriched a handful of corporate interests - primarily one big corporation, ADM (Archer Daniels Midland). Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve air quality."
McCain in 2006:
"I support ethanol and I think it is a vital, a vital alternative energy source not only because of our dependency on foreign oil but its greenhouse gas reduction effects," he said in an August speech in Grinnell, Iowa, as reported by the Associated Press.
I swear, every last one of them is a spineless douchebag
"Who," Galileo asked, "would dare assert that we know all there is to be known?"
Sean,
Spineless is the wrong word.
They are thieves of the very worst kind.
They plot together for the love of money and power forgoing human suffering.
They have no compassion for anything but what they can obtain.
They lie to our faces and we believe them. We stick up for them. We justify it by saying they are the lesser of two evils, when in fact the are the devil himself.
The only hope is one day judgement will reign down hard upon these creatures of the night. They will suffer unspeakable horror for their acts.
Spineless is the wrong word.
They are thieves of the very worst kind.
They plot together for the love of money and power forgoing human suffering.
They have no compassion for anything but what they can obtain.
They lie to our faces and we believe them. We stick up for them. We justify it by saying they are the lesser of two evils, when in fact the are the devil himself.
The only hope is one day judgement will reign down hard upon these creatures of the night. They will suffer unspeakable horror for their acts.
This arrived in the inbox today... an article courtesy of a a boattest.com newsletter:
____________________________________________________
Boater Sues For Ethanol Damage - 04/30/2008
Ron Tamillo of Ron's Marine Service seen here replacing Lawrence Turner's fuel tank.
Turner is urging a class action suit on behalf of boaters with ethanol damaged tanks.
The following article appeared in the Los Angles Times on April 15, 2008--
By Elizabeth Douglass, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Ethanol Strikes
Something was wrong with Sally Ann.
For months, she sputtered and choked, and Barry Treahy's remedies weren't working. He kept changing her fuel filters. Then he rebuilt her carburetor. Finally, he cut into her gas tank, cleaned out the mysterious caramel-colored gunk and patched her up -- twice.
Disaster struck on a summer day in San Diego, when Treahy's beloved 20-foot fishing boat was parked street side with the outer hull plug open to drain any residual water. The boat's 55-gallon gas tank failed and gasoline streamed into the bilge and down the street.
"I wasn't smart enough to figure it out at first," Treahy said of Sally Ann's chronic troubles. Finally, he found the answer in a boating magazine. Ethanol-laced gasoline was dissolving his boat's fiberglass fuel tank, sending bits of resin to clog filters and ultimately eating a hole all the way through the tank. Years of adding ethanol to gasoline to reduce air pollution and foreign oil dependence has had a nasty side effect: The stuff appears to damage boat fuel tanks made of fiberglass. [According to industry sources the problem is only with tanks built before the early 1980s.--ed] And California is a floating testing ground for the ethanol effect.
At the beginning of 2004, all gasoline sold in the state was required to carry 5.7% ethanol as a replacement for the banned fuel additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, which was fouling groundwater supplies. Some boaters were unaware of the ramifications of the switch.
Boater Fights Back
Lawrence Turner, stuck with more than $35,000 in ethanol-related damage to his boat, decided to fight back. Last week, the Studio City resident sued Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and eight other gasoline producers and distributors in U.S. District Court, arguing that the companies sold gasoline at marinas without warning boaters of ethanol's harmful consequences.
"It caught me completely by surprise," said Turner, whose twin-engine, semi-custom Mediterranean sport fisher named Grateful Med is still out of commission. "I figured if you went to a marine gas station and filled up your tank, you were fine to operate."
Ethanol-blended fuel destroyed the boat's fiberglass fuel tank, and mechanics had to cut through the hull and remove the ruined tank piece by piece. A new, aluminum tank was being installed last week. Engine repairs are still to come.
"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," said Turner, a 50-year-old accountant, attorney and diet company president. "What if people pulled up to their local gas station [in their cars] and all of the sudden their gas tank started dissolving?"
A Chevron spokesman said the company hadn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment. Shell Oil Co., one of the defendants in the lawsuit, Monday rejected the notion that oil companies were to blame for boat damage caused by ethanol-blended gasoline.
"There were years of advance notification that this change was coming," and ethanol's effect on fiberglass has been known for a long time, Shell President John Hofmeister said Monday while attending a low-carbon fuels conference in Sacramento. "Any boat owner or any boat seller or any boat maintenance shop that didn't know about this impending change and the potential consequences simply wasn't listening or reading."
A Call for Class Action
Turner seeks damages and restitution from the fuel companies. He also wants the case to be given class-action status so other boat owners in California could recoup the cost of ethanol-fuel-related repairs. There are nearly 950,000 pleasure boats registered in the state, but it's unclear how many of those were built with fiberglass tanks and how many might have been damaged by ethanol-blended fuel.
Brian Kabateck, Turner's attorney, said an expert estimated that about 10% of all the boats in California have some sort of fiberglass material used in their tanks. Repair costs could vary dramatically.
Bob Adriance Speaks Up
Bob Adriance, technical director for the Boat Owners Assn. of the United States, said ethanol's dangers were widely known these days among the group's 650,000 members. But skippers in California and New York, the first states to adopt ethanol-blended gasoline, had to figure it out themselves.
"They really got hammered because they didn't know anything. They just suddenly had filters being clogged, and then, some people not only had to replace their fiberglass tanks, they also had to replace engines," Adriance said. "It can cost tens of thousands of dollars -- more than the boat's worth in many cases."
Adriance said they also were the first to suffer from ethanol's other effects, including its tendency to scour a fuel tank of gums, resins and debris, carrying the gunk into fuel filters. Ethanol also attracts water, and over time, water-laden ethanol can separate from the rest of the gasoline, wreaking havoc with the engine.
Those problems require boaters to make adjustments, but they are manageable, said Adriance, who also edits Seaworthy, a publication by sister organization BoatUS Marine Insurance. He said newer boats had ethanol-tolerant fiberglass tanks and other components, but older boats with certain types of fiberglass tanks, rubber seals, hoses and gaskets and the like could be severely damaged by ethanol-laced fuel.
CARB in the Dark
California's Air Resources Board [CARB], the agency that shepherded the switch from MTBE to ethanol as a fuel additive, was surprised to hear that boats had been damaged by the state's 5.7% ethanol fuel blend, which is well below the 10% blends common elsewhere in the country.
"If this reported case is with a California boat that was using California fuel, this would be the first that I've heard of it," agency official Jim Guthrie said.
He asked boaters to notify the air board of any problems, especially because California plans to raise the ethanol component in gasoline to 10%.
"To my mind, the state isn't in a position to know about all of the effects," said Adriance of BoatUS.
As for the lawsuit against oil companies, though, "it seems to me that they have a legitimate point," Adriance said. "Nobody told the boat owners. The oil companies or somebody ought to have warned them."
____________________________________________________
Boater Sues For Ethanol Damage - 04/30/2008
Ron Tamillo of Ron's Marine Service seen here replacing Lawrence Turner's fuel tank.
Turner is urging a class action suit on behalf of boaters with ethanol damaged tanks.
The following article appeared in the Los Angles Times on April 15, 2008--
By Elizabeth Douglass, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Ethanol Strikes
Something was wrong with Sally Ann.
For months, she sputtered and choked, and Barry Treahy's remedies weren't working. He kept changing her fuel filters. Then he rebuilt her carburetor. Finally, he cut into her gas tank, cleaned out the mysterious caramel-colored gunk and patched her up -- twice.
Disaster struck on a summer day in San Diego, when Treahy's beloved 20-foot fishing boat was parked street side with the outer hull plug open to drain any residual water. The boat's 55-gallon gas tank failed and gasoline streamed into the bilge and down the street.
"I wasn't smart enough to figure it out at first," Treahy said of Sally Ann's chronic troubles. Finally, he found the answer in a boating magazine. Ethanol-laced gasoline was dissolving his boat's fiberglass fuel tank, sending bits of resin to clog filters and ultimately eating a hole all the way through the tank. Years of adding ethanol to gasoline to reduce air pollution and foreign oil dependence has had a nasty side effect: The stuff appears to damage boat fuel tanks made of fiberglass. [According to industry sources the problem is only with tanks built before the early 1980s.--ed] And California is a floating testing ground for the ethanol effect.
At the beginning of 2004, all gasoline sold in the state was required to carry 5.7% ethanol as a replacement for the banned fuel additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, which was fouling groundwater supplies. Some boaters were unaware of the ramifications of the switch.
Boater Fights Back
Lawrence Turner, stuck with more than $35,000 in ethanol-related damage to his boat, decided to fight back. Last week, the Studio City resident sued Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and eight other gasoline producers and distributors in U.S. District Court, arguing that the companies sold gasoline at marinas without warning boaters of ethanol's harmful consequences.
"It caught me completely by surprise," said Turner, whose twin-engine, semi-custom Mediterranean sport fisher named Grateful Med is still out of commission. "I figured if you went to a marine gas station and filled up your tank, you were fine to operate."
Ethanol-blended fuel destroyed the boat's fiberglass fuel tank, and mechanics had to cut through the hull and remove the ruined tank piece by piece. A new, aluminum tank was being installed last week. Engine repairs are still to come.
"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," said Turner, a 50-year-old accountant, attorney and diet company president. "What if people pulled up to their local gas station [in their cars] and all of the sudden their gas tank started dissolving?"
A Chevron spokesman said the company hadn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't comment. Shell Oil Co., one of the defendants in the lawsuit, Monday rejected the notion that oil companies were to blame for boat damage caused by ethanol-blended gasoline.
"There were years of advance notification that this change was coming," and ethanol's effect on fiberglass has been known for a long time, Shell President John Hofmeister said Monday while attending a low-carbon fuels conference in Sacramento. "Any boat owner or any boat seller or any boat maintenance shop that didn't know about this impending change and the potential consequences simply wasn't listening or reading."
A Call for Class Action
Turner seeks damages and restitution from the fuel companies. He also wants the case to be given class-action status so other boat owners in California could recoup the cost of ethanol-fuel-related repairs. There are nearly 950,000 pleasure boats registered in the state, but it's unclear how many of those were built with fiberglass tanks and how many might have been damaged by ethanol-blended fuel.
Brian Kabateck, Turner's attorney, said an expert estimated that about 10% of all the boats in California have some sort of fiberglass material used in their tanks. Repair costs could vary dramatically.
Bob Adriance Speaks Up
Bob Adriance, technical director for the Boat Owners Assn. of the United States, said ethanol's dangers were widely known these days among the group's 650,000 members. But skippers in California and New York, the first states to adopt ethanol-blended gasoline, had to figure it out themselves.
"They really got hammered because they didn't know anything. They just suddenly had filters being clogged, and then, some people not only had to replace their fiberglass tanks, they also had to replace engines," Adriance said. "It can cost tens of thousands of dollars -- more than the boat's worth in many cases."
Adriance said they also were the first to suffer from ethanol's other effects, including its tendency to scour a fuel tank of gums, resins and debris, carrying the gunk into fuel filters. Ethanol also attracts water, and over time, water-laden ethanol can separate from the rest of the gasoline, wreaking havoc with the engine.
Those problems require boaters to make adjustments, but they are manageable, said Adriance, who also edits Seaworthy, a publication by sister organization BoatUS Marine Insurance. He said newer boats had ethanol-tolerant fiberglass tanks and other components, but older boats with certain types of fiberglass tanks, rubber seals, hoses and gaskets and the like could be severely damaged by ethanol-laced fuel.
CARB in the Dark
California's Air Resources Board [CARB], the agency that shepherded the switch from MTBE to ethanol as a fuel additive, was surprised to hear that boats had been damaged by the state's 5.7% ethanol fuel blend, which is well below the 10% blends common elsewhere in the country.
"If this reported case is with a California boat that was using California fuel, this would be the first that I've heard of it," agency official Jim Guthrie said.
He asked boaters to notify the air board of any problems, especially because California plans to raise the ethanol component in gasoline to 10%.
"To my mind, the state isn't in a position to know about all of the effects," said Adriance of BoatUS.
As for the lawsuit against oil companies, though, "it seems to me that they have a legitimate point," Adriance said. "Nobody told the boat owners. The oil companies or somebody ought to have warned them."
"Who," Galileo asked, "would dare assert that we know all there is to be known?"
[quote="Sean B"]But skippers in California and New York, the first states to adopt ethanol-blended gasoline, had to figure it out themselves. /quote]
These assholes in the media can never get anything straight. New York was definately at the head of the class, but there were several other states that had ethanol before California (like Mass, Md, Mich, AZ, MN, etc...).
These assholes in the media can never get anything straight. New York was definately at the head of the class, but there were several other states that had ethanol before California (like Mass, Md, Mich, AZ, MN, etc...).
Regards,
Doug L.
Doug L.
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In Memory Walter K
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Capt Dick Dean
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In Memory Walter K
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We have a local Mom & Pop chicken farm where you can buy chickens and eggs that have had no chemicals or hormones in their feed. We were there when they were opening their mail. They were upset but sure there was a mistake in their feed bill that they had just opened. It was double their previous bill for the same time frame. They called while we were there and found out that the bill was correct...the price just went up. Guess how that will effect the price of their chickens and eggs. Multiply that by cattle feed, corn syrup in every soft drink sold, cornmeal in baked products, etc., etc., etc. You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know this was going to happen...but they did it anyway, because it sounded politically correct! Now so much money is tied up in making it, there's almost no way to back off...especially in an election year. Strangely, I predict the environmentalists who were behind this will be the guys who will stop it. Walter
Walter,
Unfortunately what you say is true. We have been touting this line ourselves for 3 years with no one paying any heed. In my opinion, if you make a statement about this situation, it seems to come to fruition. Therefore, I wholeheartedly agree that the "Greenies" will eventually put a stop to this, ......or the death of a politician or family memeber due to an ethanol tradjedy.,
Unfortunately what you say is true. We have been touting this line ourselves for 3 years with no one paying any heed. In my opinion, if you make a statement about this situation, it seems to come to fruition. Therefore, I wholeheartedly agree that the "Greenies" will eventually put a stop to this, ......or the death of a politician or family memeber due to an ethanol tradjedy.,
Harv
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mike ohlstein
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Bruce wrote:Unless there's a secret memo somewhere stating that the dissolving effects of ethanol were known ahead of time, your gonna have a hard time proving that fact.
The other issue is government mandated use of alternative fuels.
Where does the liability issue actually lie?
The end result of any lawsuit is higher prices to the consumer. We will pay any damages awarded. So we get screwed from both ends with no lube.
Some where I have that secret file!!!!
I have a copy of a study done on Ethanol effects for the Department Of Energy back in mid 80's!!!
I will try and find it. It is a pdf file so I will post a link to it once I find it...
And yes in black and white it said it would screw up many fiberglass tanks sure was nice of them to warn us!!!
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