Here is what is said about 2. e5 in "Winning With the Center Counter" by Ken Smith & John Hall: "(Insipid. This allows Black an easy game) 2...c5 (Anticipating a later d4 and planning on playing Bf5 followed by e6 with an improved French Defense formation.....) Black has no problems here."
In "Center Counter" by John Grefe & Jeremy Silman, they say (re 2. e5): "Black has a number of ways to deal with this unusual line, e.g. even 2...e6, 2...c6, or 2...Nc6 are playable. One of the strongest moves is 2...Bf5, probably leading to a type of French Defense in which Black has solved the problem of his Queen bishop."
In "The Essential Center-Counter" by Andrew Martin he says (re 2...e5): Branded as weak in many opening textbooks I'm quite sure that you wouldn't find many masters playing 2...e5. However, there are some interesting ideas connected to this move and Black must play with a clear plan of campaign. The first key move is to take the center and to look to develop the B on c8 early. 2...c5!"
My database of 3.5+ million games shows 1556 games after 2.e5 and of these only 138 (or 8.8%) continued with 2...e6. The average ELO of the players making this move was 1690 while the most popular move 2...c5 (704 games or 45.2%) had an average ELO of 1992.... considerably higher. So it appears that while 2...e6 is played, the consensus is that it is not the best.
Hope that helps.
i was wondering if this was a variation of the scandinavian?