E15 Remains Major Focus

A White House session between President Donald Trump and key lawmakers saw Trump reiterate his intention or support for making sales of E15 available year-round. Ahead of that meeting, several groups laid out their positions on the fuel.Trump's promise to push forward with year-round E15 sales was lauded in a letter sent to him ahead of the session by a group of Iowa and Nebraska fuel retailers. They said following through on his decision to allow the sales will "provide a lower-cost, cleaner-burning fuel option for consumers during the busy summer driving season."However, they pushed for action ahead of June 1 when current regulations on summer gasoline kick in and curb E15 sales."It is imperative that you direct the EPA to immediately begin the rule-making process necessary to turn your pledge into reality," the groups urged, adding, "Without regulatory relief, on June 1st we will see our E15 sales plummet and consumers forced to pay more for fuel than they should."Backing of making E15 available year-round also came from a coalition of farm and commodity organizations, including the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), American Farm Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association (ASA), National Farmers Union (NFU) and National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG)."We agree that this barrier is unnecessary, and removing it would benefit not only farmers, but also consumers and air quality," they said.Like the fuel retailers, the ag groups expressed alarm with the EPA's recent decision to grant waivers for up to 1.6 billion gallons of RFS volume requirements for refiners. "These exemptions run contrary to your commitment to America’s farmers and remove a significant amount of renewable fuel gallons from RFS volumes," they remarked. "Because of these exemptions, RIN values, a stated concern of refiners, have fallen significantly and remain low."However, not all are in favor of E15. A group labeling itself as "a diverse range of interests and industries including meat and poultry producers and processors, restaurants, marine manufacturers and small engine owners, development, conservation and environmental groups, and consumer and taxpayer organizations," penned a letter to Pruitt urging against year-round E15 sales.The groups said the availability of low or no-ethanol fuels remains critical for use in "engines and fuel systems of boats, motorcycles, lawn equipment, as well as many automobiles, which are not capable or allowed to run on E15."