Will 2019 Finally Be the Year of E15?

by Ron Lamberty (American Coalition for Ethanol) Retailer interest in E15 increased over the past few months, with many retailers believing President Donald Trump “signed something” making E15 legal year-round at an event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in October. We’ve explained there wasn’t any law or rule put into place at the rally, and there’s a process to be completed before the E15 summer RVP “fix” is a reality, but most retailers we’ve talked to seem confident E15 year-round will be the law because the president said it would be the law.

We expect increased interest from other retailers (who don’t follow politics as closely) when the U.S. EPA submits the rule the president promised (soon, we hope), and petroleum and convenience store industry press covers the rule and process between now and Memorial Day.

Everything from regulations to incentives to RIN-less ethanol suppliers to fuel marketer war stories, as well as links to other ethanol information sources, can be found at flexfuelforward.com.

One of our most pressing challenges is correcting a mixed message we’ve unintentionally put out to the fuel retailing community, especially the single-store and small-chain owners and operators. When we encouraged retailers to try E15 after EPA granted its partial waiver in 2011, we said it would cost little or nothing to add this new fuel grade. Ethanol opponents threw around outrageous cost numbers for adding E15, usually obfuscating the truth using E85-compatible equipment costs, and always assuming station owners would have to add new pumps, tanks and lines to offer a new grade of fuel. Apparently, oil companies can’t understand why station owners would be willing to give up premium sales making up a few percent of their fuel volume, or the midgrade infrastructure that is as good as the day Big Oil forced stations to install it, since nobody ever buys midgrade. Changing one of those products to E15 costs next to nothing and 90 percent of cars on the road can use it. What’s holding everyone up?

Unfortunately, we muddied that message ourselves when the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Biofuels Infrastructure Partnership (BIP) program was announced. Suddenly we were touting $200 million in grants from USDA, states and ethanol industry initiatives for pumps, tanks and other equipment for blends above 10 percent ethanol. That confused people we had recently told there was very little cost to add E15. After all, why would they need millions of dollars to offer a product we can sell with existing equipment?

And while touting E15’s introduction to the market by large, respected retail convenience store chains captured the attention of most of the c-store industry, it also created backlash among the single and small chains mentioned earlier. First, there was the perception big retailers put in E15 because only big retailers could, reinforcing the “high cost” propaganda. Then, when press reports showed their “rich” competitors got all the BIP money and other funds, single-store and small-chain owners—the people who were first to move ethanol in the past—had enough of E15.

That perception is not reality, and we must correct it if E15 is ever going to spread nationwide. ACE looks forward to continuing to do our part in the coming months and beyond. READ MORE

MIXED MESSAGING ON E15 TIMING: Perdue tweeted a photo of himself and Wheeler at USDA headquarters, praising the acting EPA chief for "moving expeditiously to finalize [the] E-15 rule before the start of summer driving season." That tweet closed the loop after several hours of confusion, which started when Perdue told House Ag members that EPA wouldn't have the ethanol regulation ready by June.

Across town, Wheeler quickly disputed Perdue's comments at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture policy conference: "That is not a fact," he said at the event at USDA, Pro's Eric Wolff and Liz Crampton report.

Behind the mix-up: Perdue showed up at the NASDA event later and offered up an explanation. "Administrator Wheeler told me a couple weeks ago that in catching up after the shutdown, it looked very doubtful they'd be able to make the commitment prior to driving time," he told reporters. "But I think he's really pushing and driving his troops to get that done. And today he told me he thought it was very likely they could get it done and would do so if at all possible." READ MORE