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Cooper: EPA must approve year-round E15 to honor president’s commitment

The EPA has just under a month to complete the rulemaking process to allow E15 sales to continue without interruption.

Geoff Cooper, CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, says the EPA must act quickly to finalize a rule that truly opens the market to E15. 

“There’s a lot of work left to do for the agency and not a lot of time to do it so I know they’re going 100 miles an hour over there to try to get this rulemaking done to honor the president’s commitment to have E15 available year-round and throughout the summer months,” he says.

The public comment period ended Monday and now the EPA must draft a final rule and send it to the White House for approval.

The RFA submitted comments in support of year-round sales of E15 but discouraged the EPA from finalizing any Renewable Identification Number market reforms.

Cooper says he remains hopeful the process will be finalized in time for the summer driving season.

“We were encouraged that EPA did deny a couple of requests that came in for an extension of the comment period,” he says. “EPA looked at that request for an extension and said no, the rule needs to be in place before summer.”

Cooper spoke at the High Octane Fuel Summit by the Indiana Corn Growers Association.

Audio: Geoff Cooper, Renewable Fuels Association