• 23-SEP-2014

Look Before You Pump!

Look Before You Pump!
Dear PSA Director:

Today there are more fuel choices for consumers than ever before. No longer can anyone go to a gas station and assume the fuel from the pump is safe and legal for their automobile AND for their lawn and landscape equipment, utility vehicle, boat, snowmobile, home generator, snow thrower or other small engine equipment.

Most fuel sold today at gas stations for automobiles and outdoor power equipment contains up to 10 percent ethanol (E10). However, increasingly more gas stations are selling ethanol fuel blends greater than 10 percent – such as E15, E30 and E85 – that are not approved for use in most outdoor power equipment.

These higher ethanol fuel blends may be cheaper. But, price is no longer the way to choose gas.

In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency has stated E15 and higher is not legal for use in off-road engine products and is currently only legal in a small subset of automobiles. Many consumers are not aware of this and are in danger of damaging or destroying small engine equipment because of mis-fueling with higher than recommended ethanol blends. Mis-fueling may also void product warranties, and cost consumers repair or replacement expenses.

The enclosed LOOK BEFORE YOU PUMP, 30 second, public service announcements give your listeners some practical information about selecting gasoline for their non-automotive engines. In many cases, this will be the first time consumers are made aware of the different fueling options and the consequences for choosing the wrong gasoline.

The non-commercial spots are provided by the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute which wants Americans to look for the ethanol content of their gasoline, and choose the correct fuels for their engines.

Many of your viewers are among the hundreds of millions of Americans who might be vulnerable to using the wrong type of gas. We ask you to join us in airing these PSA spots whenever you have time available. And we ask you to help us continue to deliver good public service content by filling out and returning the enclosed postage paid reply card.

For more information on choosing the correct fuels for the correct engines, visit www.opei.org or www.LookBeforeYouPump.com

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Kris Kiser
President and CEO of the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute

For Technical Assistance please contact:
Dan Schwartzberg at Dan.Schwartzberg@synapticdigital.com