Ethanol groups urge EPA to allow E15 sales this summer
Summary
A group of Midwest governors in April 2022 filed petitions requesting that the EPA remove the 1-psi Reid vapor pressure (RVP) waiver for summer gasoline-ethanol blended fuels, which would effectively allow E15 to be sold year-round within their states. On March 1, 2023, the EPA released a proposed rule to allow year-round E15 sales in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin starting in 2024 rather than in 2023. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the portion of the June 2019 related to E15, overturning the ability of most fuel retailers to sell E15 during the summer driving season. During the March 21 hearing, representatives of the ethanol industry urged the EPA to take action to allow E15 sales to continue during the upcoming summer driving season via either a change to the proposed rule or the implementation of a new emergency waiver. Unless the Agency acts quickly, Midwest drivers will soon lose the ability to choose a fuel that saved them 20-30 cents per gallon on average last summer at a time of record gasoline prices.” “Retailers who have offered E15 and consumers who have purchased E15 in 2020, 2021, 2022, and who will be able to use it in 2024, will now have to quit selling and using E15 for three and a half months because of EPA foot-dragging,” said Ron Lamberty, chief marketing officer at the American Coalition for Ethanol.