Ethanol Blog RFA's Cooper: Group Intends to Ask DC Circuit Court for Rehearing on E15 Ruling

by Todd Neeley (DTN Progressive Farmer) The Renewable Fuels Association is planning to petition the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for a rehearing of an E15 case that could jeopardize the year-round sale of the 15% ethanol blend of gasoline starting next year.

The RFA may be petitioning the D.C. Circuit for a rehearing before all 11 judges of the court and may possibly petition the Supreme Court on the case, the head of the group said in a July 15 letter to an EPA official.

The RFA asked the EPA to use its discretion to maintain the sale of E15 during the current high-ozone period through Sept. 15, RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper wrote in the letter.

The D.C. Circuit recently ruled the agency lacked the authority to grant a Reid vapor pressure waiver to E15 to allow for year-round sales. Ethanol officials have indicated the court's recent ruling likely would not affect E15 sales in the current driving season.

Cooper said in the letter to Lawrence Starfield, acting assistant administrator in the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance at EPA, that the agency needs to take action to protect E15 sales for the current year.

Cooper said in the letter an "immediate vacatur" of the E15 rule would cause "potentially drastic consequences" for U.S. biofuels producers and the gasoline market.

"If E15 sales were required to cease immediately upon issuance of the D.C. Circuit's mandate, summertime E15 sales would fall precipitously," Cooper said in the letter. "Certain oil companies already are advising their downstream blenders to cease blending E15. Termination of E15 sales will result in significant financial losses for retailers who had planned to blend E15 throughout the volatility control season, higher prices for U.S. gasoline consumers, and elimination of the environmental benefits that come with higher ethanol blends."

Cooper said the EPA has the discretion to delay implementation of the court's ruling. For example, the agency recently delayed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit on small-refinery exemptions. READ MORE

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: The Renewable Fuels Association sent a letter to the U.S. EPA on July 15 urging the agency to exercise its enforcement discretion to continue allowing sales of E15 during the remainder of the 2021 summer driving season and announcing its intent to fight a recent court decision vacating the EPA’s 2019 rule allowing year-round E15 sales.

The letter, addressed to Lawrence Starfield, acting assistant administrator in the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, provides an overview of efforts to secure year-round E15 sales, including a rule finalized by the EPA in 2019 that extended the 1-psi Reid vapor pressure (RVP) waiver to E15, allowing the fuel to be sold in most markets year-round. Prior to that rule, the RVP waiver was extended only to E10 blends.

The EPA’s 2019 E15 rule was challenged by oil interests. On July 2, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the EPA’s E15 rule, “finding that EPA’s interpretation of the statutory gasoline RVP restrictions and allowances exceeded its authority under the Clean Air Act,” according to the RFA in its letter. “The court ordered that issuance of its mandate, and therefore if official vacatur of the E15 rule, would be delayed until seven days after the disposition of any timely petition for rehearing or petition for rehearing en banc.”

In the letter, the RFA, which intervened ion behalf of EPA in the proceeding before the D.C. Circuit, announces its intent to file a petition for rehearing by Aug. 16. The group said it may also seek U.S. Supreme Court review. Co-intervenor Growth Energy may also do the same, according to the letter.

In the meantime, the RFA is urging the EPA to work toward development of an alternative solution to allowing year-round E15 sales. READ MORE

Excerpt from Environmental and Energy Study Institute: Ethanol’s Effect on RVP

Currently, about 95 percent of U.S. gasoline is sold as E10 (10 percent ethanol, 90 percent gasoline). Adding 10 percent ethanol to gasoline raises gasoline’s RVP rating by one psi, to approximately 10 psi, according to the National Renewable Energy Lab. Because of this phenomenon, the EPA granted E10 a one psi waiver (commonly referred to as the one pound waiver) in 1992. Currently, higher blends of ethanol, such as E15, do not have a waiver.

While neat ethanol actually has a very low RVP rating (2 psi), the chemical interaction between small volumes of ethanol and gasoline causes RVP to increase. As the volume of ethanol in the fuel is increased beyond 10 percent, this effect is erased, and the RVP of the gasoline begins to drop. At higher blends, such as E30, RVP is just below 9 psi. Because the RVP of gasoline drops as ethanol content increases, blends higher than E50 have a lower RVP than that of the base gasoline, and no RVP waiver is required. READ MORE