EPA has announced it will issue an emergency waiver to allow E15 use this summer. The temporary waivers will be issued every 20 days and exempt the 15% ethanol fuel blend from volatility requirements that effectively block sales from June 1 to Sept. 15. EPA moved just in the nick of time.
Without the announcement prior to May 1 terminal operators would have been forced to discontinue selling E15 in about two-thirds of the country during the busy summer driving season.
Ron Lamberty, chief marketing officer with the American Coalition for Ethanol, says: “There’s somewhere around 3,000 stations and they sell it in a lot of those stations, it’s the best-selling product they have. So, in the market it’s a huge amount.”
He says for consumers it’s a lower cost, low carbon alternative at the pump. “Wherever you see E15 sold, it’s usually anywhere from around 5 cents to 15 cents less expensive than regular. Consumers want less expensive. It’s higher-octane fuel at a lower price.”
And that also puts downward pressure on other petroleum products.
Lamberty says while this is good news, they need a permanent solution to provide certainty for retailers, and until then its limiting growth. The optimism for passage is growing, though, with the American Petroleum Institute endorsing the bill.
