Recall Of CAFE Rule Is Opportunity To Improve Fuel Quality

(Urban Air Initiative) The announcement by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the fuel economy rules rushed through in late 2016 will be revised is an encouraging first step for high octane fuels to play a much bigger role, according to the Urban Air Initiative (UAI).

“We commend EPA for giving this important issue of fuel economy and carbon reductions the thorough and complete evaluation it requires. This final determination opens the door for EPA to potentially remove the regulatory barriers limiting midlevel ethanol blends,” said UAI President Dave VanderGriend.

In the report released by EPA, it cites comments from the auto and ethanol industries that high-octane mid-level ethanol blends could help reduce greenhouse gas. And EPA agrees that these and other commenters have identified “promising technologies that may be able to deliver significant improvements in reducing GHG emissions once fully deployed.”

“We welcome a more comprehensive review to show high octane fuels such as ethanol can increase efficiency in not just cars of the future but in the cars on the road today. But we will also continue to point out how the EPA’s own rules are the primary obstacle to the development of high octane technologies” VanderGriend said.

The latest decision comes because the 2012 CAFE rule included an agreement by all parties to conduct a Mid Term Evaluation of the program. At the time, the ambitious standards were based on a number of assumptions such as high oil prices, significant improvements in electric vehicle technology and price and consumer preferences. The evaluation that was to have taken a year to review was rushed though before President Trump took office.

“We will continue to work with all the interested parties to share our emissions, efficiency, and health data to see if working together we can achieve these goals of cleaner fuels and efficiency,” said VanderGriend. “That said, we will be adamant in calling on regulators to recognize that internal combustion engines will remain the primary source of propulsion. These cars can achieve significant improvement with clean, high octane fuels”. READ MORE

Excerpt from Washington Examiner: The ethanol industry’s top trade group is calling on Pruitt to make changes to fuel-efficiency regulations that would benefit higher blends of corn ethanol.

The Obama administration made it harder for ethanol-fueled vehicles, called flex-fuel vehicles, to be counted toward meeting the clean-vehicle rules. But the Renewable Fuels Association sees Pruitt’s move to roll back Obama’s program as an opportunity to carve out a new road for ethanol-powered vehicles.

• Rather than curse the darkness: As environmentalists slammed Pruitt’s decision, the Renewable Fuels Association was encouraging the EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “to strongly consider the role of high-octane fuels,” which means blends of ethanol of 15 percent and higher to meet the needs of high-compression, turbo-charged engines that will be needed to make cars more fuel efficient in the 2022-2025 timeframe.

• Fueling regulations: “For too long, our light-duty vehicle fuel economy and [greenhouse gas] emission regulations have focused exclusively on the vehicle,” said Bob Dinneen, RFA’s president and CEO.

“Fuels and engines work as integrated systems, and we have provided mounds of evidence that high-octane, low-carbon ethanol blends in optimized engines would be the lowest-cost means of achieving compliance with future fuel economy standards.” READ MORE

Excerpts from Politico's Morning Energy: He (EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt) also told the Times that he thinks EPA should be looking into high octane fuels as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. "One of the things we need to look at going forward that the ethanol industry, the oil and gas industry, the auto industry, would all be excited about, is a high octane approach to address that those CAFE and GHG discussions for mobile sources," Pruitt said. "I think that presents an opportunity for us." READ MORE