White House Should Move Beyond E15, Boost Biofuel’s Economic, Environmental, National Security and Public Health Benefits

May 20, 2022

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(Solutions from the Land) ... Reports out of Washington indicate that EPA submitted to the White House late last month its proposal on biofuel mandates, calling for a retroactive reduction for years 2020 and 2021, then boosting it back up for this year.

Unfortunately, reports also indicate that the Biden administration is errantly using as a consideration the potential for an increase in food prices that might come with any hike in blending requirements in these inflationary times, given the corn needed to make the nation’s principal renewable fuel – ethanol.

Pressure is being applied on the White House by food interests to restrain ethanol blends, even though reputable research has shown no connection between ethanol and food production. In fact, Average corn yields have increased by more than 25 bushels per acre since 2007, allowing farmers to grow more corn on less land and with fewer resources. This productivity growth allows farmers to meet demand across all uses of corn, including food, feed and fuel, with significant bushels to spare.

According to the Renewable Fuels Association (based on USDA data), total U.S. cropland decreased by 7 percent in the decade since the RFS was updated in 2007. A relentless growth in corn supply over the years has been driven by an ever-increasing average corn yield, as U.S. farmers have continued to grow more corn on less land. While corn acreage has fallen over the past eight decades, yield per acre has more than tripled, and continues to grow.

Oil companies are also engaged in their long-term practice of finger-pointing, castigating ethanol in this time of high prices. Those same refineries, who consistently attack biofuels because of the competition they pose to Big Oil, are earning record profits as the price of oil – the principal driver of gasoline prices – hovers near $110 per barrel. With average gas prices hovering above a record-breaking $4.50 per gallon, it needs to be understood that blending less-expensive biofuel into gasoline is helping keep the price at the pump from soaring even higher.

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Authored by Reid Detchon, an SfL senior advisor who examines climate issues for the United Nations Foundation, and Reg Modlin, a former director of regulatory affairs with Chrysler, the paper makes a compelling case that the EPA has to go beyond its past practice of regulating vehicles alone and address the composition of gasoline as well.

In “The Real Cost of Gasoline … Is To Our Health,” the authors say that enabling the use of low-carbon, high-octane fuels like those blended with ethanol in existing vehicles would achieve immediate reductions in emissions from mobile sources that are impossible to realize in any other way. The paper reinforces the SfL position that ethanol blends should be greater and more widely available than that provided under the president’s emergency order last month expanding sales of E15 to year-round.

The authors further contend that ethanol, if blended in higher concentrations like E25 and E30 (25- and 30-percent ethanol blends), could reduce by 40 percent the aromatic content of gasoline. Aromatics are elements retained in gasoline by refiners to meet desired fuel performance, but have been found to be carcinogenic. READ MORE

Spiking Gasoline and Food Costs Weigh on Biden Biofuel Plans: The administration is setting new biofuel-blending targets amid record inflation (Bloomberg)

E15 Gasoline Can Save You Money at the Pump: The cost reduction overcomes the energy loss. (Wall Street Journal)

Biden Is Running Out of Options to Tame Soaring Gasoline Prices: US average retail gasoline prices are at record high: AAA data
Gasoline demand has started to show signs of softening (Bloomberg)

Excerpt from Wall Street Journal: A letter (May 10) questions the savings from E15 gasoline (gasoline blended with 15% ethanol) versus mainstream E10 gasoline, claiming that reductions in miles per gallon with E15 will exceed cost savings. I have studied the impact of fuel composition on engine operation for decades. It’s correct that E15 contains less energy than E10, around 1.5% less. But assuming gasoline at $4 a gallon, this reduction in energy would be overcome by cost reduction when E15 gasoline costs 6 cents or more per gallon less than E10.

Savings with E15 generally far exceed 6 cents a gallon compared with E10, producing a welcome reduction in operating cost per mile for consumers. Moreover, the 1.5% penalty with E15 is a worst-case scenario. Octane enhancement with E15 coupled with reduced intake temperature (heat of vaporization) typically offsets some of the 1.5% reduction in fuel economy. Finally, energy security from an American homegrown fuel, coupled with greenhouse-gas-emissions reductions, further support E15 as the preferred choice. --Andrew Randolph, ECR Engines, Welcome, N.C. READ MORE

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EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) environmental policy Transportation Fuels Policy White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) renewable volume obligation (RVO) food prices food vs fuel Sustainability ethanol/bioethanol ethanol prices oil prices fuel prices gasoline price corn prices Yields land use land use change land use policy animal feed Big Oil/Oil Majors oil refineries Biofuel Crops Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS and RFS2) Regulations-Federal aromatics E25 E30 E15 corn/maize corn ethanol health benefits public health policy E15 pumps E25 pumps E30 pumps E85 pumps ethanol pumps

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