As alerted early Monday, year-round E15 will be announced by President Joe Biden today during a trip to Iowa. The president will announce summertime sale of E15 at a Poet bioethanol facility in Menlo, Iowa. A senior official on Monday said the administration plans to use emergency authority to allow for the fuel to continue to be sold after the current June 1 cutoff.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will make the move official in a waiver closer to the beginning of June. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he was confident “Iowa biofuel producers can ramp up production and provide affordable, low-carbon biofuels to the country if the president allows summer sales of E15.”
The shift could yield a modest effect on pump prices given that in areas where’s it already available, E15 sells at a 5- to 10-cents per gallon discount to regular gasoline, said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at retail tracker Gas Buddy.
E15 is gasoline comprised of 15% ethanol. The change, which would apply on a temporary basis over the summer months, would waive anti-pollution restrictions that effectively block warm-weather sales of E15 gasoline in areas where smog is a problem.
Ethanol proponents have been imploring the administration to make the change permanent, after a successful legal challenge by oil refiners led to a court last year overturning an initial attempt by the Trump administration. About 2,300 of the nation’s more than 150,000 stations now sell E15, and though it is available in roughly 30 states, the fuel is most widely offered in the Midwest.
The president’s move is “good news for farmers and ethanol producers,” according to Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. “Summer sales this year could account for about 250 million gallons of E15. But the impact goes far beyond summer sales in 2022. This means retailers aren’t forced to abandon E15.”
Meanwhile, a fact sheet (link) listing the Biden administration’s fuel-related efforts also said that the EPA is proposing a change that would allow canola-based biofuels to qualify for credits under a federal program that compels refiners to blend plant-based alternatives into gasoline and diesel.
