News
E15 waiver needed for summer
The CEO of Growth Energy says the EPA needs to issue an E15 emergency waiver quickly if the fuel is going to be available this summer.
Emily Skor says the EPA allowed E15 last summer, because of the volatility to the U.S. fuel supply, combined with environmental and cost benefits. She says those dynamics are still at play.
“It’s still very much kind of a factor and top of mind, so our hope is that we hear something from EPA this week or next week, in time for consumers to have this fuel uninterrupted.”
She says EPA action is needed by early May if E15 is going to be widely available.
“Retailers change to their summer fuel on June 1st, so that is really the ultimate timetable, but the fuel supply needs several weeks of advance notice. We still have time ahead of us, but the clock is ticking.”
During his testimony on Wednesday EPA Administrator Michael Regan told members of the House Ag Committee the agency is considering year-round E15 beginning in 2024.
“We also are excited about responding to those eight governors,” he says. “We took that request very seriously. We tried to ramp it up in a in a timely fashion to have 2023 included, but we’re probably just not going to be able to do that.”
To make E15 available this year, he says the EPA will have to pursue an option similar to what was used in 2022.
“Which is a case-by-case analysis of whether or not E15 will be needed in 2023,” he says. “And in that case, we’d have to use our emergency waiver.”
Brownfield’s Carah Hart reported this story from the NAFB Washington Watch in Washington D.C.
Maybe we need to start asking EPA how they can model E15 as being worse for air quality than that of E10. How can EPA approve a waiver for E15 if EPA models E15 raising vehicle emissions. Time to fix EPA’s models so that ethanol gets a fair opportunity in the market.