FORT LAUDERDALE (CN) - Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and others sell ethanol-blend gasoline without warning boat owners that it will damage engines and fuel systems and ruin fiberglass fuel tanks, necessitating their replacement, a class action claims in Federal Court.
The class claims the major refiners knew the ethanol-blend gas would do this, but sold it to boat owners anyway, without warning them. The class also claims the ethanol blends "expire more quickly around water."
The refineries began making, and pushing, their ethanol blends around 2004, after a previously used carcinogenic oxygenate, methyl tertiary butyl ether, was found to pollute groundwater.
Plaintiffs are represented by Jeffrey Ostrow.
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