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Ethanol producer warns Biden E15 waiver is not a long-term solution

The CEO of a Wisconsin ethanol producer says President Biden’s E15 announcement is still just a temporary fix to a problem his administration helped create.

Erik Huschitt from Badger State Ethanol tells Brownfield it’s good to have the waiver back again but, “We started with having that waiver through the Trump administration. It was Biden’s EPA that denied that emergency waiver, so it then put us on a crash course for this summer of, how in the world are we going to get E15 to the customers at a time when they need it most?”

Huschitt says consumers, farmers, and ethanol producers need a permanent, long-term E15 year-round rule and not just a temporary solution. “You know, the frustrating thing is when they make these emergency rulings, we finish this driving season and we’re right back where we started from. We’re not seeing any long-term fix in this announcement to grant this waiver going forward.”

Huschitt says the science already shows higher blends of biofuels have higher octane and are better for the environment, but the politics get in the way of a permanent E15 rule.