RFA: EPA Is Working on an E15 Rule

by Kelsey Tamborrino (Politico's Morning Energy) Bob Dinneen, the outgoing CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, told reporters Wednesday that he thinks EPA staff is working on a rule to allow year-round sales of 15 percent ethanol fuel, despite what Wheeler told Senate EPW earlier in the day. "We can certainly start that process," Wheeler said, indicating the agency hadn't begun work on an E15 regulation. "What [Wheeler] said today is inconsistent with what I've been hearing from both career and political staff," Dinneen said. "They're not just getting started on it. They've done a lot of work on it. ... I know staff at the agency have been working on the legal support for the waiver."

Who's afraid of 2022? RFA has generally been unwilling to make concessions in legislative negotiations led by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), largely because it believes the RFS is working well the way it is, and under incoming CEO Geoff Cooper, that won't change. "We're not terribly concerned that EPA or others are going to see the reset process as an opportunity to muck things up," Dinneen said, adding that the biofuel industry and its congressional advocates only want a Clean Air Act waiver for higher Reid Vapor Pressure, which would allow year-round sales of E15. "The biggest stumbling block today is the fact that RVP is still being held hostage," he said. "We're like, enough. They have to get that one done. ... The analogy I've used is, even Kim Jong Un understood that if you want to have a meeting with the president, you have to give up a few hostages. We're saying, give up your hostages." READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: The Renewable Fuel Standard turns 13 today, making it old enough to have its bar or bat mitzvah. Ethanol producers are filled with naches over the program's expansion of domestic biofuel production, but they want presents. What they'd really like is a Clean Air Act waiver allowing year-round sales of E15, something Trump promised Iowans last week was "very close" (though acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler was skeptical). "President Trump vowed to protect the engine of economic growth that has delivered for 13 years," Kyle Gilley, a spokesman for ethanol producer POET, said in a statement. "It is time to allow year-round E15 access for America's drivers." READ MORE