Kuhl/Massa SUV ethanol smackdown
There’s an interesting dispute developing between the Massa and Kuhl campaigns over Randy Kuhl’s SUV. Kuhl claims that
In a mass email to supporters, my opponent wrote that I drive a ‘taxpayer funded, gas guzzling SUV.’ Well, as inconvenient as the truth is for him, I do not lease my car on the taxpayer’s dollar. In fact, I drive a flexible fuel vehicle specifically designed to run on gasoline blended up to 85% ethanol (E85). Just like his confusion on the source of funding for my car, my opponent is equally as lost when it comes to offering real solutions to lowering the price of gas.
It is true that the lease for Kuhl’s SUV is not paid for with taxpayer money. However, he does bill the cost of fueling the car to taxpayers, as the Massa campaign points out. You can see a pdf detailing travel reimbursements to the Kuhl campaign here — you’ll see over $1000 dollars billed as “private mileage usage”. during three quarters of 2007.
The Massa campaign also points out that:
Kuhl boasts of using an E85 ethanol SUV, however the closest station that has E85 is in Rochester New York, about an hour and a half north of Randy Kuhl’s hometown of Hammondsport.
and that
Randy Kuhl has received $35,100 in Big Oil campaign contributions.
Now, are the details of this debate the most important thing in the world? No, but details do matter and Kuhl has played loose with them on energy and ethanol specifically before.
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