Karnataka | An inflammable E20 controversy

It’s a controversy that got blended with other inflammable ones when it first took shape—becoming part of a citizenry’s generalised angst, with exam leaks and then SIR taking star billing on Insta-critiques. This time, though, E20 is not just fuel to be added to other fires. Karnataka’s Congress government has put ethanol under the microscope—specifically the exact quantums being blended in petrol. As New Delhi responds, it’s crackling like a good, old Centre-state argument. With more heat than light.

E20, a blend of 20 per cent anhydrous ethanol with 80 per cent petrol, is pumped up by its enthusiasts as a key ingredient in India’s green energy transition that will also improve farm incomes and forex reserves. But with concerns over mileage and engine compatibility not fully eased, the Centre has been hard-pressed to defend the fuel ever since its April rollout as India’s main petrol blend. Now, a poser from Rizwan Arshad, Karnataka minister for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs, on November 6 has escalated the debate once again. He asked a simple question: how much ethanol is actually there in the E20 petrol available at pumps?

Armed with lab reports, he undertook to answer it himself. Samples from the pumps of major fuel companies in seven districts across Karnataka showed the ethanol blend exceeded 20 per cent in most samples, with those from Indian Oil (IOCL) and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) recording 31.2 and 30.5, respectively, Arshad claimed at a press conference. What was interesting was how Karnataka had its consumer affairs department running this scrutiny—seeking to capture the end-user’s perspective. Beginning September 21 and through October, it collected a total of 63 samples and had them tested at an independent, accredited lab.

‘SUSPECT SAMPLES’

That last bit became part-basis for the Centre’s rebuttal. The Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas said 893 samples drawn from the depots and outlets of the three public sector OMCs or oil marketing companies—IOCL (330), HPCL (283) and Bharat Petroleum (BPCL, 280)—across 27 states and Union territories were found to be within the prescribed ethanol content range of 19–21 per cent. Including 56 samples from Karnataka. These figures are from ongoing Quality Coordination Cell exercises carried out by the Centre for High Technology—the ministry’s technical wing—and the OMCs themselves.

It cast doubt on Karnataka’s sampling and testing methodology, saying the state’s certificates only say “Ethanol % by Gas Chromatography”, without specifying the standards used. Sans those “essential details”, its figures can’t be “independently validated”, the ministry said. Even the reported density of the samples, it said, was lower than expected for ethanol—which has higher density than petrol. All three OMCs called for joint, transparent testing with the state.

Unfazed, Arshad stood his ground and offered a point-by-point rebuttal on November 9. “After setting your blend right, you call me for a joint inspection. Do you think we are foolish?” he asked. Its samples had first been given to the OMCs’ labs, Arshad said, and none of their reports stated the ethanol percentage, raising suspicion. “They forced us to go to a third-party lab.”

Union minister Pralhad Joshi, whose stakes blend his consumer affairs portfolio with the fact that he’s a Karnataka native, joined in by asking why the state government was contradicting itself after seeking greater ethanol allocation for its sugar industry. The question, Arshad says, is simple: “If you claim E20, stick to it. Why go up to E30?” Last heard, Congress-ruled Kerala has begun testing E20 samples.